To the Cuckoo
To the Cuckoo
Original Text
William Wordsworth, Poems in Two Volumes (1807). See The Manuscript of William Wordsworth's Poems, in Two Volumes (1807): A Facsimile (London: British Library, 1984). bib MASS (Massey College Library, Toronto).
2I hear thee and rejoice.
3O Cuckoo! shall I call thee Bird,
4Or but a wandering Voice?
5While I am lying on the grass
6Thy twofold shout I hear;
7From hill to hill it seems to pass,
8At once far off, and near.
9Though babbling only to the Vale
10Of sunshine and of flowers,
11Thou bringest unto me a tale
12Of visionary hours.
13Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring!
14Even yet thou art to me
15No bird, but an invisible thing,
16A voice, a mystery;
17The same whom in my school-boy days
18I listened to; that Cry
19Which made me look a thousand ways
20In bush, and tree, and sky.
21To seek thee did I often rove
22Through woods and on the green;
23And thou wert still a hope, a love;
24Still longed for, never seen.
25And I can listen to thee yet;
26Can lie upon the plain
27And listen, till I do beget
28That golden time again.
29O blessèd Bird! the earth we pace
30Again appears to be
31An unsubstantial, faery place;
32That is fit home for Thee!
Notes
1] Dorothy Wordsworth notes in her journal for spring 1802 that she heard the first cuckoo on May 1. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1807
RPO poem Editors
J. R. MacGillivray
RPO Edition
3RP 2.368.
Rhyme