Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, NIGHTINGALE AND CUCKOO, by ALFRED AUSTIN



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NIGHTINGALE AND CUCKOO, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: O nightingale and cuckoo! It was meet
Last Line: And autumn silence gathers in their stead.
Subject(s): Birds; Cuckoos; Nightingales


O NIGHTINGALE and cuckoo! it was meet
That you should come together; for ye twain
Are emblems of the rapture and the pain
That in the April of our life compete,
Until we know not which is the more sweet,
Nor yet have learned that both of them are vain!
Yet why, O nightingale! break off thy strain,
While yet the cuckoo doth his call repeat?
Not so with me. To sweet woe die I cling
Long after echoing happiness was dead,
And so found solace. Now, alas! the sting!
Cuckoo and nightingale alike have fled;
Neither for joy nor sorrow do I sing,
And autumn silence gathers in their stead.





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