Poem

CUCKOO
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
About the poet…
 William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was an
English Romantic poet who worked with Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their
joint publication Lyrical Ballads (1798).
 Wordsworth's magnum opus is generally considered to be 
The Prelude, a semi-autobiographical poem of his early years that
he revised and expanded a number of times. It was posthumously
titled and published by his wife in the year of his death, before
which it was generally known as "the poem to Coleridge".
 Wordsworth was Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death from 
pleurisy on 23 April 1850.
The POEM
 O blithe New-comer! I have heard,

 I hear thee and rejoice.

 O Cuckoo! shall I call thee Bird,

 Or but a wandering Voice?

 While I am lying on the grass

 Thy twofold shout I hear;

 From hill to hill it seems to pass,

 At once far off, and near.

Continued..
 Though babbling only to the Vale

 Of sunshine and of flowers,

 Thou bringest unto me a tale

 Of visionary hours.

 Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring!

 Even yet thou art to me

 No bird, but an invisible thing,

 A voice, a mystery;
Continued..
 The same whom in my school-boy days

 I listened to; that Cry

 Which made me look a thousand ways

 In bush, and tree, and sky.

 To seek thee did I often rove

 Through woods and on the green;

 And thou wert still a hope, a love;

 Still longed for, never seen.

Continued…
 And I can listen to thee yet;

 Can lie upon the plain

 And listen, till I do beget

 That golden time again.

 O blessèd Bird! the earth we pace

 Again appears to be

 An unsubstantial, faery place;

 That is fit home for Thee!

Summary

 William Wordsworth discovers in nature an uncommon power which

can not only satisfy human beings but also can transform this earth
into a homeland for fairies and other super natural agents. It is
proved in his poem To the Cuckoo.
 The poet was wandering in the valley. He heard the sweet voice of a
Cuckoo. He felt delighted. It was spring season. The valley was full of
beautiful flowers. Clear sunshine made the atmosphere in the valley
serene and enjoyable. The poet in his extreme gladness addresses
the Cuckoo as ‘Blithe New – Comer’. The Cuckoo appears first when
spring comes to the earth. It sings happily.
 The poet was lying on the grassy field when he heard the song of the
Cuckoo. The song seemed to him a composition of two shouts such as
Cuckoo. Further he heard the song being echoed by hills around him.
 Continued…
 Although, the Cuckoo was singing in the valley, it brought to his mind the memory of his
boyhood days. By listening to the song and its echo, the poet is reminded of his past.
 He again addresses the Cuckoo as the darling of the spring. The bird is invisible to the
poet. He hears its voice only. It is mysterious that a voice is produced by an in visible
bird.
 The poet remembered a similar mysterious experience which had come about in his
boyhood. He then heard the voice of a cuckoo and was delighted. It made him curious to
see the bird. He searched for the bird in bush, tree and sky. But he did not find the bird.
Still the urge to see the bird did not subside in him. He wandered in woods and a field to
discover the bird. Still he did not find. The bird had become a fine hope, a pleasant love
for the poet at the time. That hope and that love drove him to look for the bird but the
bird was never seen.
 The poet does not give up hope to see the bird. He draws immense pleasure from the
voice of the cuckoo. The memory, of his boyhood experience also brings pleasure top
him. The voice of the Cuckoo is the medium through which he goes back to his past and
derives pleasure. For him, his boyhood is the golden time.
Conclusion..

 Although the said time is already passed, he experiences the

similar feeling at present through the cuckoo’s voice.
 Cuckoo is addressed as a blessed bird. It is blessed with the
quality of an angel or a fairy. It fills the world with joy and
happiness. The earth where human beings live appears to be a
fairy place. Cuckoos like to dwell in that fairy place or a dream-
land.