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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  834. Nightingales

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Robert Bridges. b. 1844

834. Nightingales

  BEAUTIFUL must be the mountains whence ye come, 
  And bright in the fruitful valleys the streams, wherefrom 
            Ye learn your song: 
Where are those starry woods? O might I wander there, 
  Among the flowers, which in that heavenly air         5
            Bloom the year long! 
 
  Nay, barren are those mountains and spent the streams: 
  Our song is the voice of desire, that haunts our dreams, 
            A throe of the heart, 
Whose pining visions dim, forbidden hopes profound,  10
  No dying cadence nor long sigh can sound, 
            For all our art. 
 
  Alone, aloud in the raptured ear of men 
  We pour our dark nocturnal secret; and then, 
            As night is withdrawn  15
From these sweet-springing meads and bursting boughs of May, 
  Dream, while the innumerable choir of day 
            Welcome the dawn.