Smiled like yon knot of cowslips on a cliff.

Smiled like yon knot of cowslips on a cliff.

Through tall cowslips nodding near you,
Just to touch you as you pass.

Through tall cowslips nodding near you,
Just to touch you as you pass.

And by the meadow-trenches blow the faint sweet cuckoo-flowers.

And by the meadow-trenches blow the faint sweet cuckoo-flowers.

The cowslip is a country wench.

The cowslip is a country wench.

The nesh yonge coweslip bendethe wyth the dewe.

The nesh yonge coweslip bendethe wyth the dewe.

And ye talk together still,
In the language wherewith Spring
Letters cowslips on the hill.

And ye talk together still,
In the language wherewith Spring
Letters cowslips on the hill.

The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover,
Wanting the read more

The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover,
Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,
Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems
But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burrs,
Losing both beauty and utility.

And wild-scatter'd cowslips bedeck the green dale.

And wild-scatter'd cowslips bedeck the green dale.

Ilk cowslip cup shall kep a tear.

Ilk cowslip cup shall kep a tear.