Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO A NIGHTINGALE HEARD UPON A HILLTOP BEFORE DAWN, by HERBERT TRENCH Poet's Biography First Line: Yes, nightingale, I lie awake Last Line: Floats out to all the land! Subject(s): Birds; Nightingales | ||||||||
YES, Nightingale, I lie awake And wondering hear thee sing Over the deep world from thy brake While every other thing Sleepeth -- the deep world like a lake Stirred round thee, ring on ring! More than the chanters of the light Thy passion men confounds Because like ours 'tis born in sight Of that which hath no bounds: How the dark-streaming infinite Wells in those golden sounds! Some traveller once in Himalay Chanced on a tribe so lone, So dungeoned from the world away, They deemed it all their own, And any human race but they Incredible, unknown. But up, up where the snowy crest Of Elburz mounts the blue And Caucasus sinks east and west Precipitous, some few Clansmen are found, high on its breast Where half the earth's in view; And these by that great prospect thrilled Perhaps, in joy or fear, Poor hunters wild and rudely skilled, Have raised an altar there "To the God Unknown"; and this they build Of horns of goat and deer. Like thine their dark and lofty song Where shining gulfs expand Beyond the Caspian -- Death, Time, Wrong That few can understand -- Is launched, and low and clear and strong Floats out to all the land! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SONG OF THE NIGHTINGALE IS LIKE THE SCENT OF SYRINGA by MINA LOY THE NIGHTINGALE IN BADELUNDA by TOMAS TRANSTROMER THE NIGHTINGALE by PAUL VERLAINE ODE, FR. THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM by RICHARD BARNFIELD NIGHTINGALES by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES BIANCA AMONG THE NIGHTINGALES by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING THE NIGHTINGALE; A CONVERSATION POEM by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE |
|