| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | To the Nightingale | | By William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649) |
| | | DEAR chorister, who from those shadows sends, | |
| Ere that the blushing morn dare shew her light, | |
| Such sad lamenting strains, that night attends— | |
| Become all ear—stars stay to hear thy plight; | |
| If one whose grief even reach of thought transcends, | 5 |
| Who ne’er—not in a dream—did taste delight, | |
| May thee importune who like case pretends, | |
| And seems to joy in woe, in woe’s despite; | |
| Tell me,—so may thou fortune milder try | |
| And long, long sing—for what thou thus complains, | 10 |
| Sith winter’s gone and sun in dappled sky | |
| Enamoured smiles on woods and flowery plains? | |
| The bird, as if my questions did her move, | |
| With trembling wings, sighed forth, ‘I love, I love!’ | | | | |
|
|
