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 every 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 ploughman’s clocks
When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws
And maidens bleach their summer smocks
The cuckoo then, on every tree
Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
Cuckoo;
Cuckoo, cuckoo: O, word of fear
Unpleasing to a married ear!

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