Cuckoo, cuckoo: O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!
890 When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,
And merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks,
When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,
And maidens bleach their summer smocks,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
895 Mocks married men; for thus sings he,
Cuckoo;
Cuckoo, cuckoo: O word of fear,