Our Neighbor’s Cuckoo Clock

Our neighbor has a cuckoo clock,

     Who lives across the way;

It “cuckoos” through the lonely night,

     And “cuckoos” through the day.

It “Cuckoos” loudly every hour,

     And then, O fiendish luck!

It opes the door upon the half

     And gives another “cuck!”

A dozen meetings have we held,

     The landlord we have “seen”;

He won’t eject the “cuckoo” man

     Because it would be mean.

We’ve plead and begged and made our threats

     To all vacate the block;

But still across the court resounds

     That                  cuckoo clock.

Electric cars we do not mind.

     The fire-gong stirs us not;

The hawkers or the newsboy’s cry

     We long ago forgot.

And e’en the cat-a-wauls at night

     No longer stir the block;

We have no ills of any kind

     Except that cuckoo clock.

O, in the peaceful faraway,

     Where naught but angels sing,

Where only music can be played

     Upon the silver string,

No cuckoo clocks may enter in,

     We humbly beg and pray;

And if we find one waiting there

     We’ll go the other way.

July 20, 1902

Cambridge, Massachusetts buildings – not clear which was where the Cones lived (site now a highway)