The Bird her punctual music brings 1
And lays it in its place－
Its place is in the Human Heart
And in the Heavenly Grace－
What respite from her thrilling toil 5
Did Beauty ever take－
But Work might be electric Rest
To those that Magic make－
And lays it in its place－
Its place is in the Human Heart
And in the Heavenly Grace－
What respite from her thrilling toil 5
Did Beauty ever take－
But Work might be electric Rest
To those that Magic make－
(F.1556/J.1585)
[1] The Bird, punctual:: a nightingale starts to sing in the evening. her:: Philomela who changed into a nightingale in Ovid's Metamorphoses.
[3] Human Heart:: a lament usually for interpreting nightingale's song, that touches human heart.
[4] Grace:: mercy, clemency.
[5] thrilling toil:: Philomela's tongue was cut by Tereus who raped her; she wove her story in a tapestry or a robe, a thrilling toil.
[7] electric:: exciting. Rest:: a repose, halt of Procne and Philomela by Tereus' chase.
[8] Magic:: the metamorphose.
Tereus, king of Thnace, had married Procne, the daughter of Pandion king of Athens: afterwards, inflamed with lust, he deflowered Philomela, the sister of Procne, and to prevent a discovery cut out her tongue, and confined her in a hunting-seat in a wood; the injured lady wrought her story in the loom! and contrived to send the web to her sister. Procne, pretending the rites of Bacchus, attended with a female train, burst open the gates of the lodge, and carried her sister to the palace; there they killed Itys, the son of Tereus and Procne, and served him up as a feast to Iris father; when he had satiated his hunger, and called for his son, Procne told him what she had done; Philomela, at the same time, besmeared with blood, rushed into the room, and threw the head of Itys in his face. Tereus pursuing the sisters with his drawn sword was changed into a Lapwing, Procne into a Swallow, and Philomela into a Nightingale. Thus Ovid tells the story; but Aeschylus, and after him Euripides and Sophocles, represent Procne as changed into the Nightingale. ─ The Greek Tragic Theatre (1809)
They begin their song in the evening, and continue it the whole night. These their vigils did not pass unnoticed by the ancients; the slumbers of these birds were proverbial: and not to rest as much as the nightingale, expressed a very bad sleeper. ─ Elegant Extracts (1816)