What Bird So Sings, Yet So Does Wail?

John Lyly 1553 (Canterbury) – 1606 (London)



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

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

27 sec read
113

Quick analysis:

Scheme aabbcdeeffgGG
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 488
Words 90
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 13

John Lyly

John Lyly was an English writer, poet, dramatist, playwright, and politician, best known for his books Euphues, The Anatomy of Wit and Euphues and His England. more…

All John Lyly poems | John Lyly Books

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