| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet XIX. The merry cuckoo, messenger of spring | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | THE MERRY cuckoo, messenger of spring, | |
| His trumpet shrill hath thrice already sounded, | |
| That warns all lovers wait upon their king, | |
| Who now is coming forth with garland crowned. | |
| With noise whereof the choir of birds resounded, | 5 |
| Their anthems sweet, devised of love’s praise, | |
| That all the woods their echoes back rebounded, | |
| As if they knew the meaning of their lays. | |
| But ’mongst them all, which did love’s honour raise, | |
| No word was heard of her that most it ought; | 10 |
| But she his precept proudly disobeys, | |
| And doth his idle message set at naught. | |
| Therefore, O love, unless she turn to thee | |
| Ere cuckoo end, let her a rebel be! | | | | |
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