But hark! I hear her liquid tone! Now, Hesper, guide my feet Down the red marl with moss o'ergrown, See the green space: on either hand See, in the midst she takes her stand, Hark! how through many a melting note How sweetly down the void they float! The stars shine out; the forest bends; Whoe'er thou art whom chance may bring To this sequestered spot, If then the plaintive Siren sing, O softly tread beneath her bower And think of Heaven's disposing power, Of man's uncertain lot. O think, o'er all this mortal stage How often virtue dwells with woe; How many griefs from knowledge flow; O sacred bird! let me at eve, Mark Akenside (1721-1770] Philomela 1551 TO THE NIGHTINGALE O NIGHTINGALE that on yon bloomy spray Whether the Muse or Love call thee his mate, John Milton [1608-1674] PHILOMELA THE Nightingale, as soon as April bringeth While late-bare Earth, proud of new clothing, springeth, And mournfully bewailing, Her throat in tunes expresseth What grief her breast oppresseth, For Tereus' force on her chaste will prevailing. O Philomela fair, O lake some gladness Thy thorn without, my thorn my heart invadeth. Alas! she hath no other cause of anguish But Tereus' love, on her by strong hand wroken; Wherein she suffering, all her spirits languish, Full womanlike, complains her will was broken, But I, who, daily craving, Cannot have to content me, Have more cause to lament me, Since wanting is more woe than too much having. O Philomela fair, O take some gladness Thine earth now springs, mine fadeth; Thy thorn without, my thorn my heart invadeth. ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, O for a draught of vintage, that hath been Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth! O for a beaker full of the warm South, Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, And purple-stained mouth; That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, And with thee fade away into the forest dim: Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget What thou among the leaves hast never known, The weariness, the fever, and the fret, Here, where men sit and hear each other groan; Ode to a Nightingale Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs, 1553 Where youth grows pale, and specter-thin, and dies; Where but to think is to be full of sorrow And leaden-eyed despairs; Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, Away! away! for I will fly to thee, Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, But on the viewless wings of Poesy, Though the dull brain perplexes and retards: And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne, Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown I cannot see what flowers are at my feet, The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild; The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine, Darkling I listen; and, for many a time. I have been half in love with easeful Death, Called him soft names in many a musèd rhyme, To take into the air my quiet breath; Now more than ever seems it rich to die, To cease upon the midnight with no pain, In such an ecstasy! Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain- Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird! The same that oft-times hath Charmed magic casements, opening on the foam Forlorn! the very word is like a bell To toll me back from thee to my sole self! As she is famed to do, deceiving elf. In the next valley-glades: Was it a vision, or a waking dream? Fled is that music:-Do I wake or sleep? SONG John Keats [1795-1821] "Tis sweet to hear the merry lark, That bids a blithe good-morrow; But sweeter to hark, in the twinkling dark, To the soothing song of sorrow. Oh nightingale! What doth she ail? And is she sad or jolly? For ne'er on earth was sound of mirth The merry lark, he soars on high, No worldly thought o'ertakes him; The nightingale is trilling; |