Now as I was young and easy under the apple
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and
Trail with daisies and
Down the rivers of the windfall light.
And as I was green and carefree, famous among the
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and
Golden in the mercy of his means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear andcold,
And the sabbath rang
In the pebbles of the holy streams.
All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the
Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it
And playing, lovely and
And fire green as grass.
And nightly under the simple
As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away,
All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables,
Flying with the ricks, and the
Flashing into the dark.
And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer
With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was
Shining, it was Adam and maiden,
The sky gathered
And the sun grew round that very day.
So it must have been after the birth of the simple
In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses
Out of the whinnying green
On to the fields of praise.
And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay
Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long,
In the sun born over and over,
I ran my heedless ways,
My wishes raced through the house high
And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time
In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning
Before the children green and
Follow him out of grace.
Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time wouldtake
Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,
In the moon that is always rising,
Nor that riding to sleepI should hear him fly with the high
And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.
