O Nightingale! Thou Surely Art
O Nightingale! Thou Surely Art - context Summary
Published in 1807
Published in Poems in Two Volumes (1807), this short lyric contrasts two birds' songs. The nightingale pours out a passionate, tumultuous music that pierces the night, while the stock-dove offers a modest, steady coo of enduring love and inward joy. Wordsworth privileges the dove’s calm sincerity over the nightingale’s flamboyance, suggesting a moral preference for quiet, faithful feeling rather than ostentatious emotion.
Read Complete AnalysesO Nightingale! thou surely art A creature of a "fiery heart":-- These notes of thine--they pierce and pierce; Tumultuous harmony and fierce! Thou sing'st as if the God of wine Had helped thee to a Valentine; A song in mockery and despite Of shades, and dews, and silent night; And steady bliss, and all the loves Now sleeping in these peaceful groves. I heard a Stock-dove sing or say His homely tale, this very day; His voice was buried among trees, Yet to be come at by the breeze: He did not cease; but cooed--and cooed; And somewhat pensively he wooed: He sang of love, with quiet blending, Slow to begin, and never ending; Of serious faith, and inward glee; That was the song -- the song for me!
Feel free to be first to leave comment.