Nightingale and Cuckoo
Alfred Austin
1835 to 1913
Type into the gaps to complete the poem. To reset the game, click on the "Reset Game" button located below the poem. This will clear all the words you've placed in the blanks, and resetting the poem to its original state with empty blanks. If you prefer to drag and drop words, click the Drag & Drop button below. You can also print out the poem for use in the classroom.
Yes, nightingale and cuckoo! it was meet
That should come together; for ye twain
Are emblems the rapture and the pain
That in the of our life compete,
Until we know not is the more sweet,
Nor yet have learned both of them are vain!
Yet wherefore, nightingale! off thy strain,
While yet the cuckoo doth call repeat?
Not so with me. To sweet did I cling
Long after echoing happiness was dead,
And so found solace. Now, alas! the sting!
Cuckoo and nightingale alike have fled;
Neither for nor sorrow do I sing,
And autumn silence in their stead.