Cuckoo!
In woods so long time bare.Cuckoo!Up and in the wood, I know not whereTwo notes fall.Yet I do not envy him at allHis phantasy.Cuckoo!I too,Somewhere,I have sung as merrily as heWho can dare,Small and careless lover, so to laugh at care,And whoCan callCuckoo!In woods of winter weary,In scented woods, of winter weary, callCuckoo!In woods so long time bare.
Words in this poem
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Cuckoo! is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets and Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #60663; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Hilaire Belloc, Cuckoo!, in Sonnets and Verse (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/belloc-sonnets-verse/cuckoo.html, id L21681.
Form and metre
Cuckoo! is 19 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABACC-BBA-AABCB-CBA bareA · cuckooB · whereA · fallC · allC · phantasy · cuckooB · tooB · somewhereA · he · dareA · careA · whoB · callC · cuckooB · weary · callC · cuckooB · bareA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| In woods so long time bare. | 6 | ······ |
| Cuckoo! | 2 | /· |
| Up and in the wood, I know not where | 9 | ········· |
| Two notes fall. | 3 | ··· |
| Yet I do not envy him at all | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| His phantasy. | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| Cuckoo! | 2 | /· |
| I too, | 2 | ·· |
| Somewhere, | 2 | /· |
| I have sung as merrily as he | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Who can dare, | 3 | ··· |
| Small and careless lover, so to laugh at care, | 11 | ··/˘/˘····· |
| And who | 2 | ·· |
| Can call | 2 | ·· |
| Cuckoo! | 2 | /· |
| In woods of winter weary, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| In scented woods, of winter weary, call | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Cuckoo! | 2 | /· |
| In woods so long time bare. | 6 | ······ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.