by Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936)
Heffle Cuckoo Fair Matches original text
Language: English
Tell it to the locked-up trees, Cuckoo, bring your song here! Warrant, Act and Summons, please, For Spring to pass along here! Tell old Winter, if he doubt, Tell him squat and square-a! Old Woman! Old Woman! Old Woman's let the Cuckoo out At Heffle Cuckoo Fair-a! March has searched and April tried -- 'Tisn't long to May now. Not so far to Whitsuntide, And Cuckoo's come to stay now! Hear the valiant fellow shout Down the orchard bare-a! Old Woman! Old Woman! Old Woman's let the Cuckoo out At Heffle Cuckoo Fair-a! When your heart is young and gay And the season rules it -- Work your works and play your play Before the Autumn cools it! Kiss you turn and turn about, But, my lad, beware-a! Old Woman! Old Woman! Old Woman's let the Cuckoo out At Heffle Cuckoo Fair-a!
The poem is published with the following note at the top: "Spring begins
in Southern England on the 14th April, on which date the Old Woman lets
the Cuckoo out of her basket at Heathfield Fair -- locally known as
Heffle Cuckoo Fair."
Confirmed with The Works of Rudyard Kipling, Wordsworth Editions, Ware, Hertfordshire: 1994, page 519.
Researcher for this page: Mike Pearson
Confirmed with The Works of Rudyard Kipling, Wordsworth Editions, Ware, Hertfordshire: 1994, page 519.
Composition:
- Set to music by Martin Edward Fallas Shaw (1875 - 1958), "Heffle Cuckoo Fair " [ voice and piano ]
Text Authorship:
- by Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936), "Cuckoo song"
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Researcher for this page: Mike Pearson
This text was added to the website: 2013-07-26
Line count: 30
Word count: 140