Welcome back to the Daily Poem. I'm David Kern, and today is Tuesday, May 4th, 2021. Today's poem is

from the greatest writer to ever put pen to paper in the English language. It's by William Shakespeare.

He was born sometime around April 26th of 1564 and then died April 23rd of 1616. So birthday was about a

week ago. So somewhere in that range, we're not exactly sure the day, but we believe it was right

around the 26th of April. He was, of course, a playwright poet and actor, and is known for such

plays as Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet and King Lear and Macbeth and Othello,

and there's no need to go on. He is also, of course, the Bard, the Bard of Avon, England's

national poet. And the poem that I'm going to read today is a couple of stanzas from Love's, Labor's

Lost, from Act 5, Scene 2.

It's going to be 16 lines, so 2-8-line stanzas.

Goes like this.

When daisies pied and violets blue and ladies' smocks all all silver white and cuckoo buds of yellow hue to paint

the meadows with delight the cuckoo then on every tree mocks married men for thus sings he cuckoo cuckoo cuckoo cuck Oh, word of fear unpleasing to a married ear!

When shepherds pipe on oaten straws and merry larks are plowman's clocks,

when turtles tread and rooks and daws, and maidens bleach their summer smocks.

The cuckoo then on every tree mocks married men, for thus sings he,

cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, oh, word of fear, unpleasing to a married ear.

These 16 lines are not the whole of this section of love labors lost, which shows up at the very end of the play.

But there are the two stances that are included in the book, A Nature Poem for

Every Day of the Year, which is edited by Jane McMorland Hunter, in which I have mentioned

before on this podcast. So I'm just sharing these two. It goes on longer than that. And you can

check that out online if you want. It's obviously, you just Google loves, labors lost act five and, you know, look up the

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