The First Cuckoo
TO-DAY I heard the cuckoo call,Atop of Bredon Hill,I heard him near the blackthorn bush,And Oh! my heart stood still!
For it was just a year ago,That to my love I said,“When next we hear the cuckoo call,Then you and I will wed.”
My love and I we still be two,And will be, many Springs;I think the saddest sound on earthIs when the cuckoo sings.
Words in this poem
- atop adv.
- On or at the top.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The First Cuckoo is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #50591; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Radclyffe Hall, The First Cuckoo, in Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #50591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hall-three-counties/the-first-cuckoo.html, id L22663.
Form and metre
The First Cuckoo is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 -A-A call · hillA · bush · stillA
- 2 -A-A ago · saidA · call · wedA
- 3 -A-A two · springsA · earth · singsA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| TO-DAY I heard the cuckoo call, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Atop of Bredon Hill, | 6 | ˘/···· |
| I heard him near the blackthorn bush, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And Oh! my heart stood still! | 6 | ······ |
| For it was just a year ago, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| That to my love I said, | 6 | ······ |
| “When next we hear the cuckoo call, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Then you and I will wed.” | 6 | ······ |
| My love and I we still be two, | 8 | ········ |
| And will be, many Springs; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I think the saddest sound on earth | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Is when the cuckoo sings. | 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.