To The Cuckoo

Willaim Wordsworth


About Willaim Wordsworth

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was an English poet who continues to be widely read today. Some of his famous  poems are 'Ode: Intimations of Immortality', 'She Dwelt among Untrodden Ways' and 'I wandered Lonely as a Cloud'. Wordsworth wrote lyrical Ballads with poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

O blithe New-comer! 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.

Through 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 school-boy 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 caan listen to thee yet;
Can lie upon the plain
And listen, till I do beget
That golden time again.

O blessed Bird! the earth we pace
Again appears to be
An unsubstantial, faery place;
That  is fit home for Thee!

−William Wordsworth

Available Answers

  1. 1.
    Where and when can the speaker hear the cuckoo?
  2. 2.
    How does the cuckoo's call seem to come from everywhere?
  3. 3.
    What, according to the speaker, does the cuckoo sing about?
  4. 4.
    What did the speaker do as a school-boy to find the bird?
  5. 5.

    How does the cuckoo's song seem to change the speaker's reality− how does it seem to change the time and place?

  6. 6.

    shall I call thee Bird, / Or but a wandering Voice? Why would the speaker call the cuckoo 'a wandering Voice'?

10 more answer(s) available.

Please login to post your comments.