English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray. The Harvard Classics. 190914. |
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96. Spring |
| William Shakespeare (15641616) |
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WHEN daisies pied and violets blue, | |
And lady-smocks all silver-white, | |
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue | |
Do paint the meadows with delight, | |
The cuckoo then, on every tree, | 5 |
Mocks married men; for thus sings he, | |
Cuckoo! | |
Cuckoo, cuckoo!O word of fear, | |
Unpleasing to a married ear! | |
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When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, | 10 |
And merry larks are ploughmens clocks, | |
When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws, | |
And maidens bleach their summer smocks, | |
The cuckoo then, on every tree, | |
Mocks married men; for thus sings he, | 15 |
Cuckoo! | |
Cuckoo, cuckoo!O word of fear, | |
Unpleasing to a married ear! | |
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