Lyrics

All Hail to the Days
(Drive the Cold Winter Away)
(English, c. 1625)

All hail to the days that merit more praise
Than all the rest of the year,
And welcome the nights that double delights,
As well for the poor as the peer!
Good fortune attend each merry man's friend,
That doth but the best that he may;
Forgetting old wrongs, with carols and songs,
To drive the cold winter away.

‘Tis ill for the mind to anger inclined
To think of small injury now.
If wrath be to seek, do not lend her thy cheek,
Nor let her inhabit thy brow.
Cross out of thy books malevolent looks
Both beauty and youth’s decay,
But wholly consort with mirth and with sport
To drive the cold winter away.

This time of the year is spent in good cheer,
When neighbors together do meet,
To sit by the fire, with friendly desire,
Each other in love do greet;
Old troubles forgot, are cast in the pot,
All sorrows aside they lay,
The old and the young doth carol this song,
To drive the cold winter away.