When as the rye [reach'd]1 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,
[Till that time]2 come again 
She could not live a maid!

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with The Book of Elizabethan Verse, ed. by William Stanley Braithwaite, 1907.

¹ Barratt, Raynor, Rutter, Warlock: "reach"
² Rutter: "Until that should"
³ Rutter adds:

Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo:
o word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!
Cuckoo, loud sing cuckoo!

Text Authorship:

• by George Peele (1556? - 1596), "The Impatient Maid", appears in The Old Wives' Tale, first published 1595 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Carol Barratt , "Summer Song", published 1997, from Six "Songs" for Singing, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Chopcherry", op. 151 (1947) [ baritone and piano ], from Two Songs, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Chopcherry", op. 244 (1949) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Chopcherry", op. 247 (1950) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Whenas The Rye", op. 660 (1965) [sung text not yet checked]
• by Peter Warlock (1894 - 1930), "Chopcherry", 1922, published 1923, from Peterisms: first set, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Peter Warlock (1894 - 1930), "Whenas the rye", 1918, published 1920 [ voice and piano ], first setting [sung text checked 1 time]

The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:

• by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "The driving boy", op. 44 no. 4 (1949) [ soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, mixed chorus, boys' chorus, and orchestra ], from Spring Symphony, no. 4
  • View the full text. [sung text checked 1 time]
    
• by John Milford Rutter, CBE (b. 1945), "When Daisies pied", 1997 [ chorus and piano ]
  • View the full text. [sung text checked 1 time]
    

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]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 7
Word count: 47

Als de rogge reikt tot de kin
En de korrel rijpt er in
En aardbeien drijven in de room
En jongetjes spelen in de stroom
Dan, oh, dan oh, zei mijn lief
Tot die tijd weer zal komen
Kan ze niet als een meisje dromen.1

Koekoek, koekoek, koekoek:
o roep vol angst,
en de gehuwden zijn het bangst.
Koekoek, zing hard koekoek!