Letter Iv. From A Young Nightingale To A Wren. (the Bird And Insects' Post-office.) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A B C D E F G H I J BJBJ KLKL MGMG NONO GPGP QGQG M| Dated Home Wood | A |
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| NEIGHBOUR | B |
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| When we last met you seemed very lively and agreeable but you asked an abundance of questions and particularly wanted to know whether we nightingales really do as is said of us cross the great water every year and return in the spring to sing in your English groves Now as I am but young I must be modest and not prate about what I cannot as yet understand I must say nevertheless that I never heard my parents talk of any particular long journey which they had performed to reach this country or that they should return and take me and the rest of the family with them at this particular time or season I know this that I never saw my parents fly further at one flight than from one side of a field to another or from one grove to the next Who are they who call us birds of passage They certainly may know more of the extent of the GREAT WATERS than we can neighbour Wren but have they considered our powers and the probability of what they assert I am sure if my parents should call on me to go with them I shall be flurried out of my life But it is my business to obey I have so lately got my feathers that I cannot be a proper judge of the matter As to the swallows and many other birds going to a vast distance there is no wonder in that if you look at their wings but how would you for instance perform such a journey you who even when you sing put yourself into a violent passion as if you had not a minute to live We nightingales are the birds for song This you will acknowledge I dare say though I have not begun yet I will give you a specimen when I come back if I am really to go and you will hear me in Home Wood when it is dark and you have crept into your little nest in the hovel | C |
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| Believe me I have a great respect for you and am your young friend | D |
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| THIRD IN THE NEST | E |
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| Cowper that excellent man and poet and close observer of nature writes as follows to his friend on the th of March | F |
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| TO JOHN JOHNSON ESQ | G |
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| You talk of primroses that you pulled on Candlemas Day but what think you of me who heard a nightingale on New Year's Day Perhaps I am the only man in England who can boast of such good fortune Good indeed for if was at all an omen it could not be an unfavourable one The winter however is now making himself amends and seems the more peevish for having been encroached on at so undue a season Nothing less than a large slice out of the spring will satisfy him | H |
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| He adds the following lines on the occasion | I |
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| TO THE NIGHTINGALE WHICH THE AUTHOR HEARD SING ON NEW YEAR'S DAY | J |
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| Whence is it that amazed I hear | B |
| From yonder wither'd spray | J |
| This foremost morn of all the year | B |
| The melody of May | J |
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| And why since thousands would be proud | K |
| Of such a favour shown | L |
| Am I selected from the crowd | K |
| To witness it alone | L |
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| Sing'st thou sweet Philomel to me | M |
| For that I also long | G |
| Have practised in the groves like thee | M |
| Though not like thee in song | G |
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| Or sing'st thou rather under force | N |
| Of some divine command | O |
| Commissioned to presage a course | N |
| Of happier days at hand | O |
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| Thrice welcome then for many a long | G |
| And joyless year have I | P |
| As thou to day put forth my song | G |
| Beneath a wintry sky | P |
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| But thee no wintry skies can harm | Q |
| Who only need'st to sing | G |
| To make e'en January charm | Q |
| And every season spring | G |
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| R B | M |
Robert Bloomfield
(1)
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About Letter Iv. From A Young Nightingale To A Wren. (the Bird And Insects' Post-office.)
Letter Iv. From A Young Nightingale To A Wren. (the Bird And Insects' Post-office.) is a poem by Robert Bloomfield. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.