O blithe New-comer! I have heard, I hear thee and rejoice. O Cuckoo! shall I call thee Bird, Or but a wandering Voice? [A] While I am lying on the grass 5 Thy twofold shout I hear, From hill to hill it seems to pass, At once far off, and near. [1] Though babbling only to the Vale, Of sunshine and of flowers, 10 Thou bringest unto me a tale [2] Of visionary hours. Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring! Even yet thou art to me No bird, but an invisible thing, [3] 15 A voice, a mystery; The same whom in my school-boy days I listened to; that Cry Which made me look a thousand ways In bush, and tree, and sky. 20 To seek thee did I often rove Through woods and on the green; And thou wert still a hope, a love; Still longed for, never seen. And I can listen to thee yet; 25 Can lie upon the plain And listen, till I do beget That golden time again. O blessed Bird! the earth we pace Again appears to be 30 An unsubstantial, faery place; That is fit home for Thee! * * * * * VARIANTS ON THE TEXT [Variant 1: 1845. While I am lying on the grass, I hear thy restless shout: From hill to hill it seems to pass, About, and all about! 1807. Thy loud note smites my ear!-- From hill to hill it seems to pass, At once far off and near! 1815. Thy loud note smites my ear! It seems to fill the whole air's space, At once far off and near! 1820. Thy twofold shout I hear, That seems to fill the whole air's space, As loud far off as near. [a] 1827.] [Variant 2: 1827. To me, no Babbler with a tale Of sunshine and of flowers, Thou tellest, Cuckoo! in the vale 1807. I hear thee babbling to the Vale Of sunshine and of flowers; And unto me thou bring'st a tale 1815. But unto me .... 1820.] [Variant 3: 1836. No Bird; but an invisible Thing, 1807.] * * * * * FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT [Footnote A: "_Vox et praterea nihil_. See Lipsius 'of the Nightingale.'" Barron Field.--Ed. * * * * * SUB-FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT [Sub-Footnote a: Barron Field remonstrated with Wordsworth about this reading, and he agreed to restore that of 1820; saying, at the same time, that he had "made the change to record a fact observed by himself."--Ed.] In the chronological lists of his poems, published in 1815 and 1820, Wordsworth left a blank opposite this one, in the column containing the year of composition. From 1836 to 1849, the date assigned by him was 1804. But in Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal the following occurs under date Tuesday, 22nd March 1802: