When daisies pied and violets blue
[And lady-smocks all silver white,
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue,]1
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]2 turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,
And maidens bleach their summer [smocks]3,
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.