Page:Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics.djvu/37

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THE NIGHTINGALE

As it fell upon a day In the merry month of May, Sitting in a pleasant shade Which a grove of myrtles made, Beasts did leap and birds did sing, Trees did grow and plants did spring, Every thing did banish moan Save the nightingale alone.She, poor bird, as all forlorn, Lean’d her breast against a thorn, And there sung the dolefullest ditty That to hear it was great pity. Fie, fie, fie, now would she cry; Tereu, tereu, by and by:That to hear her so complain Scarce I could from tears refrain; For her griefs so lively shownMade me think upon mine own.—Ah, thought I, thou mournst in vain, None takes pity on thy pain: Senseless trees, they cannot hear thee. Ruthless beasts, they will not cheer thee; King Pandion, he is dead,All thy friends are lapp’d in lead:All thy fellow birds do singCareless of thy sorrowing:Even so, poor bird, like theeNone alive will pity me.R. Barnefield


xxxv

Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night, Brother to Death, in silent darkness born,Relieve my languish, and restore the light; With dark forgetting of my care return.
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