Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs

About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green

The night above the dingle starry

Time let me hail and climb

Golden in the heydays of his eyes

And honoured among wagons, I was prince of the apple towns

And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves

Trail with daisies and barley

Down the rivers of the windfall light

In the sun that is young once only

Time let me play and be

Golden in the mercy of his means

And green and golden, I was huntsman and herdsman

The calves sang to my horn

The foxes on the hills barked clear and cold

And the sabbath rang slowly

In the pebbles of the holy streams

All the sun long, it was running, it was lovely

The hay fields high as the house

The tunes from the chimneys

It was air and playing, lovely and watery

And fire green as grass

And nightly under the simple stars

As I rode to sleep, the owls were bearing the farm away

All the moon long, I heard, blessed among stables

The nightjars flying with the ricks

And the horses flashing into the dark