Under the greenwood tree Who loves to lie with me, And turn his merry note Unto the sweet bird's throat, Come hither, come hither, come hither: Here shall he see No enemy But winter and rough weather.
Who doth ambition shun, And loves to live i' the sun, Seeking the food he eats, And pleas'd with what he gets, Come hither, come hither, come hither: Here shall he see No enemy But winter and rough weather.
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📖 About this poem
This little song from As You Like It is an invitation to walk away from ambition and into the woods. Shakespeare gives it the shape of an actual tune, meant to be sung, with a repeated refrain that works like a chorus you can imagine strangers humming along to. Notice how the two verses mirror each other almost exactly, changing just enough to shift the mood from music-making to simple survival, as if the song itself is settling into contentment.
The images are plain but warm: lying beneath a tree, matching your voice to a bird's song, eating what you find and being glad of it. The only enemy named is weather itself, which feels almost like a joke, since real enemies are so much worse. That's the quiet trick of the poem. It still lands because everyone, at some point, wants exactly this: fewer rivals, less striving, more sunlight and birdsong.
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