The Lark in the Morning

The Lark in the Morning (Roud 151) is an English folk song. It was moderately popular with traditional singers in England, less so in Scotland, Ireland and the United States. It starts as a hymn to the ploughboy's life, and often goes on to recount a sexual encounter between a ploughboy and a maiden resulting in pregnancy.

Synopsis

Some versions start with a verse in which a maid is overheard praising the life of a ploughboy. More often the song starts with a verse describing the lark's song:

The lark in the morning ariseth from her nest

And mounts in the air with the dew on her breast,

With the pretty ploughboy she’ll whistle & sing

And at night she’ll return to her nest again.

And goes on to describe the ploughboy's leisure pursuits:

When his days work is done, that he has for to do

Perhaps to some country wake he will go

There with his sweetheart he will dance and sing

And at midnight return with his lass back again.

On the journey home they tumble in the hay, and some months later the girl's mother makes the usual inquiry:

Oh, it was the pretty ploughboy,” the damsel she did say,

Who caused me for to tumble all along the new-mown hay.

Typically the song ends with a verse wishing good luck to "the ploughboys, wherever they may be".

Mr Kemp from Herongate in Essex, in Lay Still, a variant collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams starts with a conversation between a shepherd and Floro in which she suggests he stay in bed because the day is wet and he responds that he will go to tend to his flock:

And then goes on to sing the Lark in the morning verse and some verses about ploughboys.

History

Early printed versions

The earliest known version was published in a garland (a broadside containing a number of songs) called Four Excellent New Songs printed in Edinburgh in 1778.