Classic Poem

Chelmsford Maid

'Twas on a summer's morning
 I happened for to stray
When the farmers got the corn in
 All by the break of day
Down the bonny Che[l]msford meadows
 By the river running clear
There I met a modest maiden
 In that gay time of the year

2

O bonny was her rosey face
 And handsome was her gown
The sweetest girl in any place
 The fairest in the town
Her eyes were dark like waters deep
 When black clouds pass the sun
And o'er her gown two white hills peep
 Like snow when springs begun

3

Her bosom's like a heap of snow
 Among springs early flowers
Or lilys that in bunches grow
 Among the rosey bowers
O bonny maid of Chelmsford town
 Thy beauty is divine
There's many a breast as soft as down
 But few so fair as thine

4

Her face is as the apple round
 And reddens to the sun
When passing bye I see the ground
 With heart already won
I passed her on one morn in May
 Her eyes were looking down
And then my heart was ta'en away
 By that rose of Chelmsford town