To the Nightingale
by John Milton
English poet, also a historian, scholar and pamphleteer. His best known work is probably Paradise Lost (1667) which was followed by Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes (1671). He is also well known for On the Morning of Christ's Nativity (1629), the twin poems L'Allegro and Il Penseroso (1631), Lycidas and the masque Comus (1637).
To the Nightingale
by John Milton
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O Nightingale! that on yon bloomy spray
Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still,
Thou with fresh hope the lover's heart dost fill,
While the jolly hours lead on propitious May.
Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day,
First heard before the shallow cuckoo's bill,
Portend success in love; O, if Jove's will
Have linked that amorous power to thy soft lay,
Now timely sing, ere the rude bird of hate
Foretell my hopeless doom in some grove nigh;
As thou from year to year hast sung too late
For my relief, yet hadst no reason why:
Whether the Muse, or Love, call thee his mate,
Both them I serve, and of their train am I.
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