Summary | To The Cuckoo | William Wordsworth

Wordsworth's poems have a nostalgic effect. His attachment will nature is clear in the poem. Through he does not know what a cuckoo really us, he's enthralled by its double fold uncomposed singing beats which he calls the wandering voice. He considers nature as his friend, philosopher and guide.

The poet was wandering in the valley. He heard the sweet voice of a Cuckoo. He felt delighted. It was spring season. The valley was full of beautiful flowers. Clear sunshine made the atmosphere in the valley serene and enjoyable. The poet in his extreme gladness addresses the Cuckoo as 'blithe new-comer'. The Cuckoo appears first when spring comes to the earth. It sings happily. The poet was lying on the grassy field when he heard the song of the Cuckoo. The song seemed to him a composition of two shouts such as koo-hoo. Further he heard the song being echoed by hills around him. Although the Cuckoo was singing in the valley, it brought to his mind the memory of his boyhood days. By listening to the song and its echo, the poet is reminded of his past. He again addresses the Cuckoo as the darling of the spring. The bird is invisible to the poet. He hears its voice only. It is mysterious that a voice is produced by an invisible bird.

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The poet remembered a similar mysterious experience which had come about in his boyhood. He then heard the voice of a cuckoo and was delighted. It made him curious to see the bird. He searched for the bird in the bush, tree and sky. But he did not find the bird. Still the urge to see the bird did not subside in him. He wandered in woods and a field to discover the bird. Still he did not find it. The bird had become a fine hope, a pleasant love for the poet at the time. That hope and that love drove him to look for the bird but the bird was never seen. The poet does not give up hope to see the bird. He draws immense pleasure from the voice of the cuckoo. The memory of his boyhood experience also brings pleasure top him. The voice of the Cuckoo is the medium through which he goes back to his past and derives pleasure. For him, his boyhood is the golden time. Although the said time is already passed; he experiences the golden days of his boyhood when he had heard the same voice and thought it to be a fairyland.

What is the poet's cherished desire?

The poet was a great lover of nature and spent all his time with nature. In his boyhood, he had heard the sweet voice of the cuckoo and he was so mesmerized by it that he looked a thousand ways in the bush and tree and sky to find the bird that had this sweet voice. he heard it again after many years and felt the sane fascination for that voice but his desire for seeing the bird was not fulfilled. Now his cherished desire was to lie on the plains and listen to its sweet voice.

How did the poet react to the cuckoo's voice in his boyhood?

The poet was a great lover of nature. In his boyhood, he had heard the sweet voice of the cuckoo and he was so mesmerized by it that he looked a thousand ways in the bush and tree and sky to find the bird that had this sweet voice. But all his effort was futile for the bird could not be seen anywhere and remained a longing for him. He hoped someday he would  get to see the bird with that sweet voice.