Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO THE NIGHTINGALE, by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO THE NIGHTINGALE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Sister of love-lorn poets, philomel
Last Line: She thrills me with the husband's promised name!
Subject(s): Birds; Nightingales; Poetry & Poets


SISTER of love-lorn Poets, Philomel!
How many Bards in city garret pent,
While at their window they with downward eye
Mark the faint lamp-beam on the kennelled mud,
And listen to the drowsy cry of Watchmen
(Those hoarse unfeathered Nightingales of Time!),
How many wretched Bards address thy name,
And hers, the full-orbed Queen that shines above.
But I do hear thee, and the high bough mark,
Within whose mild moon-mellowed foliage hid
Thou warblest sad thy pity-pleading strains.
O! I have listened, till my working soul,
Waked by those strains to thousand phantasies,
Absorbed hath ceased to listen! Therefore oft,
I hymn thy name: and with a proud delight
Oft will I tell thee, Minstrel of the Moon!
"Most musical, most melancholy" Bird!
That all thy soft diversities of tone,
Tho' sweeter far than the delicious airs
That vibrate from a white-armed Lady's harp,
What time the languishment of lonely love
Melts in her eye, and heaves her breast of snow,
Are not so sweet as is the voice of her,
My Sara -- best beloved of human kind!
When breathing the pure soul of tenderness,
She thrills me with the Husband's promised name!





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