[ti:The Seasons]
[ar:Loreena McKennitt]
[al:To Drive The Cold Winter Away]

[offset:500]
[00:00.00]Loreena McKennitt - The Seasons
[00:16.79]Traditional English, arranged by Loreena McKennitt
[00:18.79]
[00:20.79]Come all you lads and lasses,
[00:23.45]I'd have you give attention
[00:26.20]To these few lines I'm about to write here,
[00:32.67]'Tis of the four seasons of the year that I shall mention,
[00:38.43]The beauty of all things doth appear.
[00:45.08]And now you are young and all in your prosperity,
[00:51.38]Come cheer up your hearts and revive like the spring
[00:58.53]Join off in pairs like the birds in February
[01:04.27]That St. Valentine's Day it forth do bring.
[01:10.97]
[01:20.33]Then cometh Spring, which all the land doth nourish;
[01:25.87]The fields are beginning to be decked with green,
[01:32.55]The trees put forth their buds
[01:34.97]and the blossoms they do flourish,
[01:38.03]And the tender blades of corn on the earth are to be seen.
[01:44.32]Don't you see the little lambs by the dams a-playing?
[01:50.50]The cuckoo is singing in the shady grove.
[01:57.57]The flowers they are springing,
[02:00.24]the maids they go a-Maying,
[02:03.43]In love all hearts seem now to move.
[02:10.76]
[02:18.92]Next cometh Autumn with the sun so hot and piercing;
[02:25.38]The sportsman goes forth with his dog and his gun
[02:32.17]To fetch down the woodcock,
[02:35.14]the partridge and the pheasant,
[02:38.15]For health and for profit as well as for fun.
[02:44.42]Behold, with loaded apple-trees the farmer is befriended,
[02:50.62]They will fill up his casks that have long laid dry.
[02:57.81]All nature seems to weary now,
[03:01.56]her task is nearly ended,
[03:05.01]And more of the seasons will come by and by.
[03:11.90]
[03:30.28]When night comes on with song
[03:32.74]and tale we pass the wintry hours;
[03:37.77]By keeping up a cheerful heart we hope for better days.
[03:44.92]We tend the cattle, sow the seed,
[03:47.98]give work unto the ploughers,
[03:51.39]With patience wait till winter yields
[03:54.57]before the sun's fair rays.
[03:58.13]And so the world goes round and round,
[04:01.69]and every time and season
[04:05.00]With pleasure and with profit
[04:07.39]crowns the passage of the year,
[04:12.09]And so through every time of life,
[04:15.23]to him who acts with reason,
[04:19.42]The beauty of all things doth appear.
[04:27.70]
[04:40.33]
[04:45.99]END