Nightingales

"For as nightingales do upon glow-worms feed, So poets live upon the living light."

"Under der linden An der heide, Dâ unser zweier bette was, Dâ muget ir vinden Schône beide Gebrochen bluomen unde gras. Vor dem walde in einem tal, Tandaradei, Schône sanc diu nahtegal."

"Hark! ah, the nightingale— The tawny-throated! Hark from that moonlit cedar what a burst! What triumph! hark!—what pain! * * * * * * Listen, Eugenia— How thick the bursts come crowding through the leaves! Again—thou hearest? Eternal passion! Eternal pain!"

"I said to the Nightingale: "Hail, all hail! Pierce with thy trill the dark, Like a glittering music-spark, When the earth grows pale and dumb."

"Hark! thats the nightingale, Telling the self-same tale Her song told when this ancient earth was young: So echoes answered when her song was sung In the first wooded vale."

"Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day First heard before the shallow cuckoos bill, Portend success in love."

"The sunrise wakes the lark to sing, The moonrise wakes the nightingale. Come, darkness, moonrise, everything That is so silent, sweet, and pale: Come, so ye wake the nightingale."

"Have ye seen the ethereal blue Gently shedding silvery dew, Spangling o’er the silent green, While the nightingale, unseen, To the moon and stars, full bright, Lonesome chants the hymn of night?"

"As it fell upon a day In the merry month of May, Sitting in a pleasant shade Which a grove of myrtles made, Beasts did leap, and birds did sing, Trees did grow, and plants did spring; Every thing did banish moan, Save the nightingale alone."

"Lend me your song, ye Nightingales! O, pour The mazy-running soul of melody Into my varied verse."

"The nightingale appeard the first, And as her melody she sang, The apple into blossom burst, To life the grass and violets sprang."

"Soft as Memnons harp at morning, To the inward ear devout, Touched by light, with heavenly warning Your transporting chords ring out. Every leaf in every nook, Every wave in every brook, Chanting with a solemn voice Minds us of our better choice."