"When that I was and a little, tiny boy, with a hey, ho, the wind and the rain A foolish thing was but a toy,

Question

for the rain it raineth every day." Literate sorts, who can you guess authored this song, and NO FAIR looking it up!

Answer 1

OK, I'm gonna guess and then go look it up, but I won't edit my response other than to say if I was wrong (which I probably will be).

Probably European, and either English or Irish (like that narrows it down, lol).

As much as I want to say Walt Whitman, he was from NY.

I don't know where Richard Brautigan was from, but probably the US, so it can't be him.

Frank McCourt was born here, but 1st generation "American", so maybe . . .

Yeah, I don't have a clue.

--EDIT--  Now I feel stupid.  Oh well.

--EDIT--  Now that the one after me has it, I can say that at first, it *really* reminded me of "Much Ado About Nothing" -- but I knew it wasn't in that one.  Grrrrrrr.

Answer 2

The bard himself... Shakespeare's Twelfth Night