Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PHILOMEL, by JOHN MYERS O'HARA



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PHILOMEL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Listen, love!
Last Line: In rapture about us and o'er us.
Subject(s): Birds; Love; Nightingales; Passion


LISTEN, love!
It is the nightingale's voice;
Listen, love!
He bids his true love rejoice;
See, the dark glade
Is a-pulse with his passion;
See, the cascade
That the moon is a-flash on
Has joined in his hymn
With a low intercession,
Has drunken the vim
Of his rapture's confession;
As the tremolo sweet
Of a silver pandore
Sways in unison meet
With the clink of a dance-girl's tambour.

Listen, love!
It is the nightingale's note;
Listen, love!
Its gushes of ecstasy float
Down the blue gloom
Of this odorous valley,
Down the perfume
Of this rose-girdled alley,
Till they faint on the far
Fragrant hill in the distance,
Till they fade as a star
In the morning's existence;
Then pour down again
In redoubled emotion
Through the languorous glen,
A rich wave from harmony's ocean.

Listen, love!
It is the nightingale's song;
Listen, love!
How its pure transports prolong
As if his flame-soul
Swooned away in the singing,
As if his heart's roll
Melted out in the ringing;
As if he had borrowed
The secret of gladness
To draw those who sorrowed
Away from their sadness;
And in the dark hour,
To brood, a bright spirit,
Anear us to mark our
Darkest foreboding and cheer it.

Listen, love!
It is the nightingale's tune;
Listen, love!
He is the spirit of June;
He is the bright
Irrepressible lover,
Dismayed not by night
Or the shadows that hover —
Oh, why art thou bold
When thy mates are unheard?
Thou'rt a seraph ensouled
In the form of a bird;
No other could fling
Joy at grief that so bound him,
No other could sing
With such darkness depressing around him.

Listen, love!
It is the nightingale's rhyme;
Listen, love!
He is hid in the leaves of the lime;
And it seems that the orbs
Of you heaven are nearer,
When his trilling absorbs
All the murmur of fear or
Vague tones of unrest
And longings fulfilled not,
Unsatisfied quest
And the doubts that are stilled not;
All these pass away
And dissolve in the chorus
Of his notes, that now sway
In rapture about us and o'er us.





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