Forever second where she sits, however fair I be:

I will be lady of his love, and he shall worship me;

I will be lady of his herds and stoop to his degree,

At home where kids and fatlings grow.”

Sped a shepherd from the height headlong down to look,

White lambs followed, lured by love of their shepherd’s crook:

He turned neither east nor west, neither north nor south,

But knelt right down to May, for love of her sweet-singing mouth;

Forgot his flocks, his panting flocks in parching hillside drought;

Forgot himself for weal or woe.