The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men, for thus sings he,
Cuckoo;
Cuckoo, cuckoo, O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear.”
In the old copies the four first lines of the first stanza are arranged in couplets thus:—
“When daisies pied, and violets blue,
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue,
And lady-smocks all silver white,
Do paint the meadows with delight.”