Now when sunbeams bright are making
Diamonds of the dews of morn,
Now when sings the lark in heaven
And the thrush upon a thorn,
Barney gets the horses ready –
I prepare to sow the corn.

Mary knots the white sheet round me;
Brigid brings her buckets twain;
With the harrow on a barrow
Paddy hurries down the lane;
And behind him I come plodding,
On my back a bag of grain.

With my sheet of corn before me
How can I be sad or lorn,
While I hear the harrow rattling,
While the bucket-fulls are borne
To me as my sheet gets empty,
While I scatter showers of corn.

While the sun is shining o’er us,
And the cool winds round us blow,
While the merry birds are making
Music for us as we go,
While the blithesome lambs are bleating
In the fields where daisies grow –

Now when gold is on the whin tops,
Now when green is on the thorn,
Now when winter has departed,
Now when genial spring is born
(If it is not done already)
Now’s the time to sow the corn.

MICHAEL MULLIN ‘The Bard of Foremass’
Foremass Lower, Sixmilecross, Co. Tyrone.