Page:Elegiac Sonnets The Third Edition.pdf/22

[  4    ] SONNET III. TO A NIGHTINGALE (c) OOR melancholy bird -- that all night long Tell'st to the Moon, thy tale of tender woe;
 * From what sad cause can such sweet sorrow slow,

And whence this mournful melody of song?

Thy poet's musing fancy would translate
 * What mean the sounds that swell thy little breast,
 * When still at dewy eve thou leav'st thy nest,

Thus to the listening night to sing thy fate.

Pale Sorrow's victims wert thou once among,
 * Tho' now releas'd in woodlands wild to rove,
 * Say -- hast thou felt from friends some cruel wrong,

Or diedst thou -- martyr of disastrous love? Ah! songstress sad! -- that such my lot might be, To sigh and sing at liberty -- like thee! SONNET