8 TO THE CUCKOO

O blithe newcomer! I have heard,

I hear thee and rejoice;

O cuckoo! shall I call thee bird

Or but a wandering voice?

While I am lying on the grass,

Thy twofold shout I hear;

From hill to hill it seems to pass,

At once far off and near.

Though babbling only to the vale,

Of sunshine and of flowers,

Thou bringest unto me a tale

Of visionary hours.

Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring!

Even yet thou art to me

No bird, but an invisible thing,

A voice, a mystery.

The same whom in my schoolboy days

I listened to; that cry

Which made me look a thousand ways,

In bush, and tree, and sky.

To seek thee did I often rove

Through woods and on the green;

And thou wert still a hope, a love,

Still longed for, never seen!

And I can listen to thee yet;

Can lie upon the plain

And listen, till I do beget

That golden time again.

O blesséd bird! the earth we pace,

Again appears to be

An unsubstantial, fairy place,

That is fit home for thee!

( William Wordsworth )

Biography

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was born in the beautiful Cumberland Highlands of northern England, which furnished the inspiration for most of his poetry. While still a young man, he retired to the Lake Country, where he lived a simple life. Wordsworth was devoted to the cause of liberty; he was a believer in the beauty and charm of the humble life; he often wrote about peasants rather than about lords and ladies and knights of romance. His poems on flowers and birds show the simplicity and sincerity of his nature. Wordsworth’s fame grew steadily during his lifetime, and for the last seven years he was poet laureate.

The cuckoo is a European bird noted for its two-syllabled whistle, in imitation of which it is named; also for its habit of laying eggs in the nests of other birds for them to hatch, instead of building a nest of its own.

Word list

vale : valley

pace : walk upon

unsubstantial : unreal

You Practice

Answer the following questions.

1) Why does the poet call the cuckoo “a wandering voice”?

2) What other names does the poet call the cuckoo?

3) To what habit of the cuckoo does this poem call attention?

4) What “golden time” is mentioned?

5) Why does the poet say a “fairy place” is a fit home for the uckoo?