Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A COLONY OF NIGHTINGALES, by CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A COLONY OF NIGHTINGALES, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I placed the mute eggs of the nightingale
Last Line: Nor knows the rival choir she settled here!
Subject(s): Birds; Nightingales


I placed the mute eggs of the Nightingale
In the warm nest, beneath a brooding thrush;
And waited long, to catch the earliest gush
Of the new wood-notes, in our northern vale;
And, as with eye and ear I push'd my search,
Their sudden music came as sweet to me,
As the first organ-tone to Holy Church,
Fresh from the Angel and St Cecily;
And, year by year, the warblers still return
From the far south, and bring us back their song,
Chanting their joy our summer groves among,
A tune the merle and goldfinch cannot learn;
While the poor thrush, that hatch'd them, listens near,
Nor knows the rival choir she settled here!





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