William Shakespeare (1564-1616). The Ousel-Cock, So Black of Hue. William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. 1907. The Book of Elizabethan Verse

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.

The Ousel-Cock, So Black of Hue

By William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

From “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream,” Act III. Scene 1

THE OUSEL-COCK, so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill,
The throstle with his note so true,
The wren with little quill;
The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,	5
The plain-song cuckoo 1 gray,
Whose note full many a man doth mark,
And dares not answer nay.

Note 1. The Plain-song cuckoo. Cf. Note to No. 11. [back]