| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Nightingales | | By Robert Bridges (1844–1930) |
| | | BEAUTIFUL must be the mountains whence ye come, | |
| And bright in the fruitful valleys the streams, wherefrom | |
| Ye learn your song: | |
| Where are those starry woods? O might I wander there, | |
| Among the flowers, which in that heavenly air | 5 |
| Bloom the year long! | |
| |
| Nay, barren are those mountains and spent the streams: | |
| Our song is the voice of desire, that haunts our dreams, | |
| A throe of the heart, | |
| Whose pining visions dim, forbidden hopes profound, | 10 |
| No dying cadence nor long sigh can sound, | |
| For all our art. | |
| |
| Alone, aloud in the raptured ear of men | |
| We pour our dark nocturnal secret; and then, | |
| As night is withdrawn | 15 |
| From these sweet-springing meads and bursting boughs of May, | |
| Dream, while the innumerable choir of day | |
| Welcome the dawn. | | | | |
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