This 4-verse song for tenor and piano accompaniment has the renown words by William Shakespeare for its text. The music moves along briskly alternating between a gentle lyricism and an almost skipping glad-to-be-outdoors feeling in impressionist and modal harmonies - "It was a lover and his lass, With a hey and a ho and a hey nonino, That o'er the green cornfield did pass, In the spring time ...". The fourth verse suddenly becomes very declarative - "And therefore take the present time, with a hey and a ho and a hey nonino, For love is crowned with the prime In the spring time ...", then it becomes coquettishly quiet on the words "The only pretty ring time, When birds do sing, Hey ding a ding ding ...", and then once more dynamic for the ending "Sweet lovers love the spring".

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