Again, in his quaint and humorous verses on the Cuckow and the Nightingale, the poet transports us into the very heart of the woods to hear a discourse between these two harbingers of summer. For the nightingale he had a fondness which is lovingly expressed in the Flower and the Leaf, where we find the picture of a woodland of oaks whose new leaves
Sprongen out ayein the sonne shene,
Some very rede, and some a glad light grene;
Which, as me thought, was right a plesaunt sight,
And eek the briddes songes for to here
Would have rejoised any erthly wight;
And I, that couth not yet, in no manere,
Here the Nightingale of al the yeare,
Ful busily herkned with herte and ere,
If I her voice perceive coud any-where.[4]