Pallid Cuckoo (2/16)

CUCULIFORMES: Cuculidae

Cacomantis pallidus  

The Pallid Cuckoo

DOLEFULLY and drearily
Come I with the spring;
Wearily and eerily
My threnody I sing.
Hear my drear, discordant note
Sobbing, sobbing in my throat,
Weaving, wailing thro' the wattles
Where the builders are a-wing.

Outcast and ostracized,
Miserable me!
By the feathered world despised,
Chased from tree to tree.
Nought to do the summer thro',
My woeful weird a dree;
Singing, "Pity, ah, pity,
Miserable me!"

I'm the menace and the warning,
Loafing, labour-shy.
In the harmony of morning
Out of tune am I--
Out of tune and out of work,
Meanly 'mid the leaves I lurk,
Fretfully to sing my sorrow,
Furtively to spy.

Outcast and desolate,
Miserable me!
Earning ever scorn and hate
For my treachery.
Shiftless drone, I grieve alone,
To a mournful key
Singing, "Sorrow, ah, sorrow!
Miserable me!"

The Pallid Cuckoo
by C J Dennis (1876-1938)
The Singing Garden (1935) p.43.