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 ev'ry tree
Mocks married men, for thus sings he,
  Cuckoo,
Cuckoo, cuckoo: o word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear.

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 ev'ry tree
Mocks married men, for thus sings he,
  Cuckoo,
Cuckoo, cuckoo: o word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear.

Text Authorship:

• by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), appears in Love's Labour's Lost, Act V, Scene 2

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Erkki Pullinen) , "Kevät", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo)
• FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• GER German (Deutsch) (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist) , "Lied. Der Frühling", first published 1870
• NOR Norwegian (Bokmål) (Arild Bakke) , "Når spraglet tusenfryd", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

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When as the rye reach to the chin,
And chop-cherry, chop-cherry ripe within,
Strawberries swimming in the cream,
And schoolboys playing in the stream;
Then, O, then O then O, my true love said,
Until that should come again 
She could not live a maid!

Text Authorship:

• by George Peele (1556? - 1596), "The Impatient Maid", appears in The Old Wives' Tale, first published 1595

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Lidy van Noordenburg) , copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

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