To the Cuckoo: Summary 2022

A quatrain consisting of eight stanzas, To the Cuckoo is a lyrical pastoral poem with elaborate stanzaic formations. Hence, it can be called an ode to the Cuckoo bird. The poet has directly addressed this poem to the cuckoo and expresses his love, devotion, and yearning to visually glimpse the cuckoo throughout the poem. Here the writer addresses a cuckoo. The poet hears the cuckoo and is in awe and wonder on the off chance that it is something more than a winged animal. His marvel ascends from the memory of his youth when the cuckoo opens up the universe of creative energy to him. The cuckoo bird is an arranged image of innocence, gaiety, purity, and boyhood.

About the Poet

William Wordsworth is well known for establishing a Romantic movement in the English world with the help of the famous poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge in the 18th century. The British romantic poet was born on 7th April 1770, in England. His mother died, leaving him alone at the age of eight, and this experience is seen in his later works. His love for poetry was firmly established after he attended Hawkshead Grammar School. His father, too, left the world, leaving him and his four siblings orphaned. His tour of Europe had a great influence on his poetry and his political sensibilities. He fell in love with a French lady and had a daughter Caroline with her, but he couldn’t marry her because of the tensions between England and France at that time. His notable works include Lyrical Ballads, The prelude, An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches, and the love letters of William and Mary Wordsworth.

To The Cuckoo: Setting

The mood of the poet in the first few stanzas is of Joy. He rejoices on hearing the cuckoo’s song again. The poem takes a nostalgic turn when the poet reminisces about the days of his boyhood, the memories of which are stirred by the cuckoo’s voice. Wordsworth also takes in a wondrous note as he tries to decide whether the cuckoo’s presence can be visually seen or only heard.
The poem is set in the English countryside in spring, as are most other poems of Wordsworth. The mention of flowers, Sunshine, and welcoming birds, is all evidence of this. The poem is set in a green valley surrounded by hills. When the piet lies down on the grass, he can hear the cuckoo’s voice echoing through the hills, and this transports him to the golden days of his boyhood.

To The Cuckoo: Annotations

Stanza-1

O, blithe newcomer! – The cuckoo is being called a blithe or carefree newcomer.

I hear thee and rejoice- The Bird’s voice fills the poet with joy

Wandering Voice- independent and free voice. It implies that the cuckoo is not subject to any restrictions.

Stanza-2

Thy twofold shout- The voice of the cuckoo echoes, making it sound like two different voices.

From hill to hill, it seems to pass- The cuckoo’s Cry echoes across the whole plane, passing from one hill to another.

Stanza-3

Babbling only to the Vale- Talking to the valley, making incomprehensible cries.

Thou bringest unto me a tale- You narrate to me a story

Visionary hours- Times from the past

Stanza-4

Thrice welcome- The cuckoo is welcomed three times; repetition shows the poet’s eagerness.

Thou art to me- You are to me.

An invisible thing- The poet can’t see the Bird, can only hear his voice

Stanza-5

Made me look a thousand ways- The poet looked in a thousand places to locate the Bird, find the source of the voice.

Stanza-6

To seek thee did I often rove- To find the cuckoo the poet frequently wandered about.

And thou were still a hope- You were still hoping, the poet kept hoping to find the Bird.

Stanza-7

And I can listen to thee yet- The poet can still listen to the voice of the cuckoo.

Beget- bring about

Golden time- The poet’s childhood days

Stanza-8

An unsubstantial, faery place- The poet refers to the earth, calling it mystical, a place of fairies. This is because of the cuckoo’s presence.

A home fit for Thee- This a home that you deserve of

To The Cuckoo: Summary

“O Blithe, Newcomer! I have heard,
I hear thee and rejoice.
O Cuckoo! Shall I call thee Bird,
Or but a wandering Voice?”

Wordsworth welcomes the cuckoo bird with a sense of familiarity, as he says he has heard him before. Calling the cuckoo a “blithe” newcomer alludes to the fact that the cuckoo is free and is not subject to the restrictions of human life. The cuckoo is merry and free from all worldly worries. The first stanza itself sets the tone for the rest of the poem as the poet clarifies that he is addressing the cuckoo. The cuckoo bird’s voice brings back joyous memories to the poet, and thus, he rejoices. The third and fourth lines of the poem suggest that the poet has never actually seen the Bird and knows him only by his voice. He expresses this when he asks the cuckoo whether he should call him a bird or his identity will remain as that of a wandering voice. The third line can also be interpreted as Wordsworth wondering whether calling the cuckoo a bird encompasses his sentiments or if the cuckoo extends beyond his realms of comprehension.

“While I am lying on the grass
Thy twofold shout I hear,
From hill to hill, it seems to pass,
At once far off and near.”

Wordsworth is lying on the grass when he hears the cuckoo’s call. The effect of echoing has been spoken about in this stanza. The cuckoo’s voice echoes across hills and reaches the poet. This gives the impression of the voice being once close, then again far off. The poet is lying on the grass while hearing the cuckoo’s song gives the reader an idea of how close and deeply attached to nature the poet is. The wandering cuckoo’s song is everywhere, and it submerges the entire milieu in its melody. The poet also reveals to the reader how he discovers that the voice is that of a cuckoo. The twofold shout that he hears is exclusive to the cuckoo. Hence the poet reaches his conclusion.

“Though babbling only to the Vale,
Of Sunshine and of flowers,
Thou bringest unto me a tale
Of visionary hours.”

Despite singing to the valley and talking about Sunshine and flowers, the cuckoo bird’s voice brings many memories to the poet. The cuckoo birds wander about in the brimming valley with flowers and Sunshine; thus, the Bird’s songs, too, are an ode to these aspects of nature. But, to Wordsworth, these songs have a completely different relevance. They act as an element of nostalgia, transporting the poet to days of his past. He calls those times “visionary hours” as he cannot go back to them in person and can only envision them from his memory. This indicates that the poet remembers the cuckoo from his childhood, which is alluded to in the first stanza when he says he has heard the cuckoo’s song before, and the cuckoo’s voice now acts as a catalyst in bringing back the poet’s memories of his childhood.

“Thrice welcome, the darling of the Spring!
Even yet thou art to me.
No bird, but an invisible thing,
A voice, a mystery;.

The poet welcomes the cuckoo thrice, indicating his excitement and eagerness. The cuckoo is addressed as the darling of the spring. He arrives with the genesis of spring, singing about valleys, flowers, and other beauties of nature. This is where the poet clearly states that he has never seen the cuckoo in reality. He recognizes him by his voice. Thus, the cuckoo is less of an actual living bird and more of a mysterious voice he wants to see to the poet. The Bird has been visually hidden from the poet through all these years, yet his song strikes such emotions in him that the poet remembers the cuckoo bird by his voice.

“The same who in my school-boy days
I listened to; that Cry
Which made me look a thousand ways
In the bush, and tree, and sky.”

In this stanza, the poet is transported to days of his childhood when he used to listen to the cuckoo’s Cry and go a thousand ways to place the source of the voice. He left no possible place undiscovered, be it the bushes, the trees, or the sky. The poet’s tone is overtly nostalgic in these lines as he clearly expresses his unfulfilled desire to get a glimpse of the origin of the voice that he remembers from his boyhood. So desperate was the poet to locate the Bird that he scourged all possible nooks and crannies in his endeavor to get visual satisfaction. The cuckoo’s voice had fascinated the poet and fired his need to locate the Bird so that he could see for himself the source of such melody.

To seek thee did I often rove
Through woods and on the green;
And thou were still a hope, a love;
Still longed for, never seen.

Wordsworth addresses the Bird, telling him how much finding him means to him. The poet constantly wandered, looking for the Bird in the woods, anywhere and everywhere. This is an indication of the poet’s dedication to locating the source of the voice. Despite being unsuccessful in the past, the poet hasn’t given up and says that he still hopes to find the Bird. Wordsworth has also confessed his love for the cuckoo bird. This is actually a good indicator of the attachment he had with the cuckoo’s voice, like the fact that he has never seen the Bird doesn’t deter him from loving the cuckoo. In the poem’s last line, the poet states that he still yearns to find the word and see for himself that there is more to the cuckoo than just his voice. The poet hasn’t lost hope yet and still wants to find his love.

“And I can listen to thee yet;
Can lie upon the plain
And listen, till I do beget
That golden time again.”

With this stanza, the poet again travels back to the present and says that he can still listen to the cuckoo lying on the ground and produce memories of his childhood. This stanza is, in actuality, a whole sentence and cannot be interpreted line-wise. Wordsworth was a romantic poet, and by labeling his childhood as the “golden time,” he confines this to his romantic genre of poetry. Like gold, he implies that his childhood was precious to him and that he wants to relive the moments of his schoolboy days by lying down on the grass and listening to the voice of the cuckoo. The poet is nostalgic and wants to conjure up memories of his childhood by relying on the cuckoo’s Cry.

“O blessed Bird! the earth we pace

Again appears to be
An unsubstantial, faery place;
That is fit home for Thee!”

“Blessed” encompasses the poet’s love and devotion towards the cuckoo. Wordsworth calls the earth “unsubstantial,” which is an unrealistic place for fairies. This could be because the earth has mesmerizing elements of nature, like the sky, woods, rivers, and valleys, but at the same time, it is plagued by restrictions of industrial life which curbs the freedom of an individual. A place with such enchanting contradictions is a place that is fit for the cuckoo. The use of the term “again” alludes to the fact that the earth takes on such a guise with the arrival of the cuckoo. The poet could also say that the earth, which is so versatile, is the perfect dwelling for the cuckoo as he, too, is full of contradictions. He stirs visions from the poet’s childhood and makes him nostalgic, but he is himself, never to be seen. Find To The Cuckoo: Analysis here.

You can also check out the summary of Daffodils by Wordsworth here.
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