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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  86. Spring’s Welcome

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

John Lyly. 1553–1606

86. Spring’s Welcome

WHAT bird so sings, yet so does wail? 
O ’tis the ravish’d nightingale. 
Jug, jug, jug, jug, tereu! she cries, 
And still her woes at midnight rise. 
Brave prick-song! Who is’t now we hear?         5
None but the lark so shrill and clear; 
Now at heaven’s gate she claps her wings, 
The morn not waking till she sings. 
Hark, hark, with what a pretty throat 
Poor robin redbreast tunes his note!  10
Hark how the jolly cuckoos sing 
Cuckoo! to welcome in the spring! 
Cuckoo! to welcome in the spring!