 | Ballads and Lyrics by Katharine Tynan |  |
10
NIGHTINGALE.
I have not seen you, I have not heard you,
O, Nightingale, your silver woods among,
Pouring the passionate love and pain that stirred you
Into a sudden heaven of heavenly song.
The dews around you, and the burnished moon above you,
Below you the great trunks of forest trees.
Your immemorial lovers, they that love you
Through nights and days and years and centuries.
O, Nightingale, your silver woods among,
Pouring the passionate love and pain that stirred you
Into a sudden heaven of heavenly song.
The dews around you, and the burnished moon above you,
Below you the great trunks of forest trees.
Your immemorial lovers, they that love you
Through nights and days and years and centuries.
What are you singing, glamouring voice of moon-tide?
All loves that loved since Eden's lovers wed,
The joy and hope of youth before the noon-tide,
The tears and pain, the peace that kissed the dead.
O, you have caught into your magical numbers
All music Earth's musicians seek and miss;
The perfect picture Raphael saw in slumbers,
The song Keats dreamed of that was never his.
All loves that loved since Eden's lovers wed,
The joy and hope of youth before the noon-tide,
The tears and pain, the peace that kissed the dead.
O, you have caught into your magical numbers
All music Earth's musicians seek and miss;
The perfect picture Raphael saw in slumbers,
The song Keats dreamed of that was never his.
I wish you came, O, scornful King of Singers,
In early Summer to this hospitable land!
Honey-sweet is it while the Maytime lingers,
With honeysuckles large as any hand.
With cowslips in the croft and in the meadow,
With fairies dancing on the dewy moss and fern,
O, Nightingale, your bower of moon and shadow
Waits for you, and our woodlands yearn and burn.
In early Summer to this hospitable land!
Honey-sweet is it while the Maytime lingers,
With honeysuckles large as any hand.
11
With fairies dancing on the dewy moss and fern,
O, Nightingale, your bower of moon and shadow
Waits for you, and our woodlands yearn and burn.
Are many gardens waiting long your coming
And many lilies steeped in scented dew,
And in green aisles rich airs of Summer roaming
And hearts of roses vaguely sad for you.
And songs our song-birds will be wild to lavish
As flowers before you: they will dream awake
All night to hear your songs that sweetly ravish;
The world will lie all sleepless for your sake.
And many lilies steeped in scented dew,
And in green aisles rich airs of Summer roaming
And hearts of roses vaguely sad for you.
And songs our song-birds will be wild to lavish
As flowers before you: they will dream awake
All night to hear your songs that sweetly ravish;
The world will lie all sleepless for your sake.
| Ballads and Lyrics by Katharine Tynan | |