by William Brighty Rands (1823 - 1882)
The Cuckoo sat in the old pear‑tree
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Language: English
The Cuckoo sat in the old pear-tree.
Cuckoo!
Raining or snowing, naught cared he.
Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo, naught cared he.
The Cuckoo flew over a housetop nigh.
Cuckoo!
"Dear, are you at home, for here am I?
Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo, here am I."
"I dare not open the door to you.
Cuckoo!
Perhaps you are not the right cuckoo?
Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo, the right Cuckoo."
"I am the right Cuckoo, the proper one.
Cuckoo!
For I am my father's only son,
Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo, his only son."
"If you are your father's only son —
Cuckoo!
The bobbin pull tightly,
Come through the door lightly —
Cuckoo!
"If you are your father's only son —
Cuckoo!
It must be you, the only one —
Cuckoo, cuckoo, my own Cuckoo!
Cuckoo!"
About the headline (FAQ)
View text with all available footnotesConfirmed with Lilliput Levee, London: Alexander Strahan, 1864, pages 54-55. Also confirmed with Lilliput Levee: Poems of Childhood, Child-Fancy, and Child-Like Moods, London: Alexander Strahan, 1867, pages 51-52. The author's name does not appear anywhere in either publication. Note: Punctuation and formatting follow the first edition.
Text Authorship:
- by William Brighty Rands (1823 - 1882), "Cuckoo in the Pear-Tree", appears in Lilliput Levee, London, Alexander Strahan, first published 1864 [author's text checked 2 times against a primary source]
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Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 30
Word count: 132