Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume V. Nature. 1904. | | | | VI. Animate Nature | | To the Cuckoo | | John Logan (1748–1788) |
| | | HAIL, beauteous stranger of the grove! | |
| Thou messenger of spring! | |
| Now Heaven repairs thy rural seat, | |
| And woods thy welcome sing. | |
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| What time the daisy decks the green, | 5 |
| Thy certain voice we hear. | |
| Hast thou a star to guide thy path, | |
| Or mark the rolling year? | |
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| Delightful visitant! with thee | |
| I hail the time of flowers, | 10 |
| And hear the sound of music sweet | |
| From birds among the bowers. | |
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| The school-boy, wandering through the wood | |
| To pull the primrose gay, | |
| Starts, the new voice of Spring to hear, | 15 |
| And imitates thy lay. | |
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| What time the pea puts on the bloom, | |
| Thou fliest thy vocal vale, | |
| An annual guest in other lands, | |
| Another spring to hail. | 20 |
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| Sweet bird! thy bower is ever green, | |
| Thy sky is ever clear; | |
| Thou hast no sorrow in thy song, | |
| No winter in thy year! | |
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| O, could I fly, I ’d fly with thee! | 25 |
| We ’d make, with joyful wing, | |
| Our annual visit o’er the globe, | |
| Companions of the Spring. | | | | |
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