George and I got this song from Annie Jane Kelly in 1952 or '53, my "Fulbright year" in Ireland, England & Scotland. It was in Sarah Makem's house in Keady, and a good part of the town was there, all with songs, banjos, pipes, fiddles and tin whistles. Sarah was an incredible singer and we traded songs until the crowd came. When Annie Jane started to sing, "May Morning Dew," Sarah said, not to softly, "AH- I was going to sing ye that one myself!" The lyric given above has the same form as Annie Jane's, but her words are subtly different most all the way through (e.g. last verse, AJ's says, ..."and we'll mingle our tears in the May morning dew..."