As I walked forth

1. As I walked forth ōne* summer’s day
To view the meadows green and gay,
A pleasant bow’r I espied
Standing fast by the riverside:
And in’t a maiden I heard cry,
‘Alas, alas! There’s none ere loved as I.’

2. Then round the meadow did she walk,
Catching each flow’r by the stalk;
Such flow’rs as in the meadow grew,
The dead man’s thumb, and harebell blue,
And as she pulled them, still cried she,
‘Alas, alas! There’s none ere loved like me.’

3. The flow’rs of the sweetest scent
She bound about with knottȳ bents,
And as she bound them up in bands,
She wept, she sighed and she wrung her hands.
‘Alas, alas, alas’, cried she,
‘Alas, alas! There’s none ere loved like me’.

4. When she had filled her apron full
Of such green things as she could cụll,
The green leaves sėrved her for her bed,
The flow’rs were the pillows for her head:
Then down she laid her, ne’er more did speak;
Alas, alas! With love her heart did bre͞ak.