tINGALE;A CONVERSAtIONAL POEM, RIttEN IN APRIL, 1798.
No cloud, no relique of the sunken day
Distinguis, no long thin slip
Of sullen Ligrembling hues.
Come, on this old mossy Bridge!
You see tream beneath,
But ?oly
Oer its soft bed of verdure. All is still,
A balmy nigars be dim,
Yet let us the vernal showers
t gladden th, and we shall ?nd
A pleasure in tars.
And ingale begins its song,
quot;Most musical, most melanc;[1] Bird!
A melanc!
In nature thing melancholy.
--But some nig was piercd
ithe remembrance of a grievous wrong,
Or sloemper or neglected love,
(And so, poor retch himself
And made all gentle sounds tell back tale
Of his own sorrows) he and such as he
First namd tes a melancrain;
And many a poet ec,
Poet, whe rhyme
ter far retchd his limbs
Beside a brook in mossy forest-dell
By sun or moonligo the in?uxes
Of sing elements
Surrendering , of his song
And of ful! so his fame
Sures immortality,
A venerable thing! and so his song
Sure lovelier, and itself
Be lovd, like nature!--But t be so;
And yout poetical
wilighe spring
In ball-rooms and tres, till
Full of meek sympat heir sighs
Oer Py-pleading strains.
My Friend, and my Friends Sister! we
A different lore: thus profane
Natures s voices always full of love
And joyance! tis tingale
t croes
it tes,
As an April night
ould be too s for o utter forth
, and disburthen his full soul
Of all its music! And I know a grove
Of large extent, le huge
lord ins not: and so
tangling underwood,
And trim walks are broken up, and grass,
ths.
But never elsewhere in one place I knew
So many Nightingales: and far and near
In over the wide grove
thers songs--
ith skirmish and capricious passagings,
And murmurs musical and s jug jug
And one lo than all--
Stirring th such an harmony,
t s almost
Forget it day! On moonlight bushes,
s are but half disclosd,
You may percwigs,
t, brig and full,
Glistning, whe shade
Ligorch.
A most gentle maid
able home
le, and at latest eve,
(Even like a Lady voe
to someture in the grove)
Glides tes,
t gentle Maid! and oft, a moments space,
time t behind a cloud,
ill the Moon
Emerging, h and sky
ition, and those wakeful Birds
fortrelsy,
As if one quick and sudden Gale
An chd
Many a Nightingale perch giddily
On blosmy till she breeze,
And to t motion tune on song,
Like tipsy Joy t reels ossing head.
Fareill to-morrow eve,
And you, my friends! farewell, a s farewell!
e ering long and pleasantly,
And norain again!
Full fain it would delay me!--My dear Babe,
iculate sound,
Mars all tative lisp,
how he would place his hand beside his ear,
tle he small fore?nger up,
And bid us listen! And I deem it wise
to make ures playmate. he knows well
tar: and once when he awoke
In most distressful mood (some inward pain
strange ts dream)
I o our orc,
And once
Suspends silently,
s tears
Did glitter in the yellow moon-beam! ell--
It is a fatale. But if t heaven
Should give me life, his childhood shall grow up
Familiar
e Joy! Once more farewell,
S Nightingale! once more, my friends! farewell.
<span style="color:Gray">[1] quot;_Most musical, most melanc; tonpossesses an excellence far superior to t of meredescription: it is spoken in ter of tic_ propriety. to rescue y to a line in Milton: a co per ofhaving ridiculed his Bible.