Sun-glow flushed their comely cheeks,
  Wind-play tossed their hair,
Creeping things among the grass
  Stroked them here and there;
Meggan piped a merry note,
  A fitful wayward lay,
While shrill as bird on topmost twig
  Piped merry May; 70
Honey-smooth the double flow.

Sped a herdsman from the vale,
  Mounting like a flame,
All on fire to hear and see,
  With floating locks he came. 
Looked neither north nor south,
  Neither east nor west,
But sat him down at Meggan’s feet
  As love-bird on his nest,
And wooed her with a silent awe, 80
  With trouble not expressed;
She sang the tears into his eyes,
  The heart out of his breast: 
So he loved her, listening so.

She sang the heart out of his breast,
  The words out of his tongue;
Hand and foot and pulse he paused
  Till her song was sung. 
Then he spoke up from his place
  Simple words and true:  90
’Scanty goods have I to give,
  Scanty skill to woo;
But I have a will to work,
  And a heart for you: 
Bid me stay or bid me go.’

Then Meggan mused within herself: 
  ’Better be first with him,
Than dwell where fairer Margaret sits,
  Who shines my brightness dim,
For ever second where she sits, 100
  However fair I be: 
I will be lady of his love,
  And he shall worship me;
I will be lady of his herds
  And stoop to his degree,
At home where kids and fatlings grow.’

Sped a shepherd from the height
  Headlong down to look,
(White lambs followed, lured by love
  Of their shepherd’s crook):  110
He turned neither east nor west,
  Neither north nor south,
But knelt right down to May, for love
  Of her sweet-singing mouth;
Forgot his flocks, his panting flocks
  In parching hill-side drouth;
Forgot himself for weal or woe.

Trilled her song and swelled her song
  With maiden coy caprice
In a labyrinth of throbs, 120
  Pauses, cadences;
Clear-noted as a dropping brook,
  Soft-noted like the bees,
Wild-noted as the shivering wind
  Forlorn through forest trees: 
Love-noted like the wood-pigeon
  Who hides herself for love,
Yet cannot keep her secret safe,
  But coos and coos thereof: 
Thus the notes rang loud or low. 130

He hung breathless on her breath;
  Speechless, who listened well;
Could not speak or think or wish
  Till silence broke the spell. 
Then he spoke, and spread his hands,
  Pointing here and there: 
’See my sheep and see the lambs,
  Twin lambs which they bare. 
All myself I offer you,
  All my flocks and care, 140
Your sweet song hath moved me so.’