Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO A CUCKOO IN A HIGHWAY HEDGE, by CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO A CUCKOO IN A HIGHWAY HEDGE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O cuckoo! Am I of my wits bereft?
Last Line: The muses know thee as a mystic sound.
Subject(s): Birds; Cuckoos


O cuckoo! am I of my wits bereft?
Or do I hear thee in the hedgerow there?
The doves of old Dodona never left
Their oak, to babble near a thoroughfare;
How shall thy mythic character outlive
Thy presence, by thy voice identified?
How shall the fells and copses e'er forgive
Thy gadding visit to the highway-side?
How art thou disenchanted! self-betray'd!
Back, foolish bird! return whence thou hast stray'd;
A woody distance is thy vantage-ground;
Thy song comes sweetest up from Moreham wood;
Why notify thy claim to flesh and blood?
The Muses know thee as a mystic sound.





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