And made all gentle sounds tell back the tale Of his own sorrow) he, and such as he, First named these notes a melancholy strain: And many a poet echoes the conceit; Poet who hath been building up the rhyme When he had better far have stretched his limbs Beside a brook in mossy forest-dell, By sun or moon-light, to the influxes
Of shapes, and sounds, and shifting elements Surrendering his whole spirit, of his song And of his fame forgetful! So his fame Should share in Nature's immortality, A venerable thing! and so his song Should make all Nature lovelier, and itself Be loved like Nature! But 'twill not be so; And youths and maidens most poetical, Who lose the deepening twilights of the spring In ball-rooms and hot theatres, they still Full of meek sympathy must heave their sighs O'er Philomela's pity-pleading strains.
My Friend, and thou, our Sister! we have learnt A different lore: we may not thus profane Nature's sweet voices, always full of love And joyance! 'Tis the merry Nightingale That crowds, and hurries, and precipitates With fast thick warble his delicious notes, As he were fearful that an April night Would be too short for him to utter forth His love-chaunt, and disburden his full soul Of all its music!
And I know a grove Of large extent, hard by a castle huge,
Which the great lord inhabits not; and so This grove is wild with tangling underwood, And the trim walks are broken up, and grass, Thin grass and king-cups grow within the paths. But never elsewhere in one place I knew So many Nightingales; and far and near, In wood and thicket, over the wide grove, They answer and provoke each other's songs, With skirmish and capricious passagings, And murmurs musical and swift jug jug, And one, low piping, sounds more sweet than all, Stirring the air with such an harmony,
That should you close your eyes, you might almost Forget it was not day! On moonlight bushes, Whose dewy leafits are but half disclosed,
You may perchance behold them on the twigs, Their bright, bright eyes, their eyes both bright and full Glistening, while many a glow-worm in the shade Lights up her love-torch.
Who dwelleth in her hospitable home Hard by the castle, and at latest eve (Even like a lady vowed and dedicate
To something more than Nature in the grove) Glides thro' the pathways; she knows all their notes. That gentle Maid! and oft a moment's space, What time the Moon was lost behind a cloud, Hath heard a pause of silence; till the Moon Emerging, hath awakened earth and sky With one sensation, and these wakeful Birds Have all burst forth in choral minstrelsy, As if one quick and sudden gale had swept
An hundred airy harps! And she hath watched Many a Nightingale perch giddily,
On blos'my twig still swinging from the breeze, And to that motion tune his wanton song Like tipsy joy that reels with tossing head.
Farewell, O Warbler! till to-morrow eve, And you, my friends! farewell, a short farewell! We have been loitering long and pleasantly, And now for our dear homes.-That strain again? Full fain it would delay me! My dear babe, Who, capable of no articulate sound, Mars all things with his imitative lisp, How he would place his hand beside his ear, His little hand, the small forefinger up, And bid us listen! And I deem it wise
To make him Nature's play-mate. He knows well The evening-star; and once, when he awoke In most distressful mood, (some inward pain Had made up that strange thing, an infant's dream) I hurried with him to our orchard-plot,
And he beheld the Moon, and, hushed at once, Suspends his sobs, and laughs most silently, While his fair eyes, that swam with undropt tears, Did glitter in the yellow moon-beam! Well!- It is a father's tale: But if that Heaven
Should give me life, his childhood shall grow up Familiar with these songs, that with the night He may associate joy! Once more farewell, Sweet Nightingale! Once more, my friends, farewell.
I saw an aged Beggar in my walk; And he was seated, by the highway side, On a low structure of rude masonry Built at the foot of a huge hill, that they
Who lead their horses down the steep rough road May thence remount at ease. The aged Man
Had placed his staff across the broad smooth stone That overlays the pile; and, from a bag
All white with flour, the dole of village dames, He drew his scraps and fragments, one by one; And scanned them with a fixed and serious look Of idle computation. In the sun,
Upon the second step of that small pile, Surrounded by those wild unpeopled hills, He sat, and ate his food in solitude; And ever, scattered from his palsied hand, That, still attempting to prevent the waste, Was baffled still, the crumbs in little showers
Fell on the ground; and the small mountain-birds, Not venturing yet to peck their destined meal, Approached within the length of half his staff.
Him from my childhood have I known; and then He was so old, he seems not older now; He travels on, a solitary Man,
So helpless in appearance, that for him
The sauntering horseman-traveller does not throw With careless hand his alms upon the ground, But stops, that he may safely lodge the coin Within the old Man's hat; nor quits him so, But still, when he has given his horse the rein, Watches the aged Beggar with a look Sidelong-and half reverted. She who tends The toll-gate, when in summer at her door She turns her wheel, if on the road she sees The aged Beggar coming, quits her work, And lifts the latch for him that he may pass. The post-boy, when his rattling wheels o'ertake The aged Beggar in the woody lane,
Shouts to him from behind; and, if thus warned The old Man does not change his course, the Boy Turns with less noisy wheels to the road-side, And passes gently by-without a curse Upon his lips, or anger at his heart. He travels on, a solitary Man;
His age has no companion. On the ground His eyes are turned, and, as he moves along, They move along the ground; and, evermore, Instead of common and habitual sight
Of fields with rural works, of hill and dale,
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