The Cuckoo from Rise Aurora by Rosie Hodgson

Oh the Cuckoo is a pretty bird she sings as she flies,
She brings us good tidings she tells us no lies,
She sucks the little birds' eggs to keep her voice clear
And when she cries "cuckoo" the summer draws near.

As I walked down by the side of a bush
I heard two birds whistling, the Blackbird and Thrush,
I asked them reason so merry they be
And the answer that they gave me,
"We are single and we are free".

But the Nightingale sings so sweetly for true love she knows,
She's pierced her brown breast on the thorn of a rose,
That rose once as white as the first fall of snow
Glows scarlet in the moonlight her heartache to show.

A-walking and a-talking, a-walking was I,
When I spied Cock Robin in a ditch he did lie.
I asked him who caused him such sorrow such strife,
And he told me that the Sparrow had taken his life.

And when the year's a-turning and wassailing we go,
I'll spy our small King as he dashes through the snow,
The Wren singing boldly is out a ways in front,
Of the boys in straw costume who are out on the hunt...

• English
• English folk
• Folk
• acoustic guitar
• singer-songwriter
• traditional
• United Kingdom