Romanticism's Singing Bird

Rice University
Romanticism's Singing Bird

Author(s): Frank Doggett
Source: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 14, No. 4, Nineteenth Century (Autumn,
1974), pp. 547-561
Published by: Rice University
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Romanticism'sSinging Bird
FRANK
DOGGETT
The bird kept saying thatbirdshad once been men,

Or were to be.
-Wallace Stevens'
Several well-known nineteenth-century

poems are celebrationsofbirdsong and have as theircentralfigurea
singing bird endowed with lyricpowers transcendingthoseof the
human poet. By traditionand connotation,theimage of thebirdat
song embodiedthepoet's idealizationof his art.Recognitionof this
backgroundof theimage should renewthesenseof poemssomewhat
With thepurposeofgaining insightinto
blurredbyoverfamiliarity.
the significanceof the figureof the singing bird, I will reviewits
development and examine its import in English poetry of the
nineteenthcentury.
The simple genericformof the image of the bird has an ancient
symbolicmeaningstatedin a famouspassage bytheVenerableBede
thatWordsworthadapted fora sonnet.A sparrowthatfliesout of a
wintrystorm,intoa humandwelling,and thenout again is compared
to the soul in its briefspan of mortallife:
Even such, thattransientThing
The human soul; not utterlyunknown
While in the body lodged, her warm abode.2
The soul conceivedin birdformfindsexpressionin thevisual artof
manycultures:earlyChristianart,forinstance,whereitcan be seenin
of theHoly Spiritas dove or in thewingedmen that
representations
are intendedto depictpurelyspiritualbeings-cherubim,seraphim,
and otherordersof angels. The singingbirdis a versionoftheimage
whose significancehas beencreatedbycenturiesofanalogies between
the song of the bird and theart of the poet.
The traditionthatlinks bird song with poetryreachesback into
classical literature.The association appears in Aristophanes'Birds,
and in Callimachus,who speaksofpoems as nightingales.Birdsong
'The CollectedPoems of Wallace Stevens(New York, 1954),p. 230.
ed. Thomas Hutchinson (London, 1928),p.
2The Poetical Worksof Wordsworth,
422. The initial referenceto all textsused hereoccurs in the footnotes.Subsequent
references
will be given by page numberin the text.Line numberswill be added for
long poems.

548
SINGING
BIRD
is touched by Orphic conceptswhen, towardthe end of the fourth

"Georgic" of Virgil,thelyricgriefofOrpheus is comparedto thelamentof thenightingale.A relationshipbetweenpoetryand birdsong
is feltbythepoetofthePervigiliumVeneris,who contrastshis silence
withthesingingofthenightingaleand longsforinspirationfromthe
swallow's song. "She sings,but we are dumb. When will myspring
begin?/When will I sing like the swallow, my season of silence
done?"3
birdimagerywas connectedwiththeidea of love as
Concurrently,
well as poetry.Depictions on Greekurns of Erato, the muse of the
poetryof love, show her with a birdat herfeetor on herknee.The
dove of Venus and thesparrowof Catullus are obvious examples of
theeroticsignificanceof the image.
For the middleages a bird's song was essentiallya love song,especially that of the nightingale.4Although the nightingale's
relationshipto theidea of love dominatedfigurativeuse of thesinging birdin poetryfromtheclassical periodon into theRenaissance,
tracesof theassociation betweenbirdsong and poetrycontinuedto
appear. The Anglo-Saxonriddlepoem whose solutionwas a singing
bird called its enigma "ancient poet of evening."5Provencalpoets
seemedto perceivetheanalogyto thepoetat his artimplicitin theimage ofthebirdat song. Bernartde Ventadorn,forinstance,said thathe
emulatedtheartof thenightingale:"The nightingalerejoicesbeside
theblossomon thebranch,and I have such greatenvyof him thatI
cannotkeepfromsinging....6 Birdssang in versein manymedieval
poems,7and althoughbeastsspokein versetoo,birdswereallottedall
thelyricpassages.JohnLydgateconcluded"The Flour ofCurtesye"
witha claim thathis poem,likethesongofthebirds,was naturaland
sincere.8The larkin William Dunbar's "The GoldynTarge" was the
poet of the sky,or in his words "hevynsmenstralefyne."9
In the Renaissance, when the lyricvoice of poetrywas not yet
divorcedfrommusic,birdsong was regardedas an expressionoffeeling comparable to poetry.Sidney's "The Nightingale,as soon as
3L1.89-90.The translationis mine.
4See Thomas Alan Shippey, "Listening to the Nightingale," Comparative
Literature,22 (1970), 46-60.
5Thephrasein theoriginalis "eald iefensceop,"literally"old eveningscop." Forthe
poem in itsbestknowntranslationsee Anglo-SaxonPoetry,trans.R. K. Gordon(New
York, 1926),pp. 328-329.
6The Songs ofBernartde Ventadorn,ed. StephenG. Nichols,Jr.and JohnA. Galm
(Chapel Hill, 1963),p. 127.
7The prologue of The Legend ofGood Womenand The Kingis Quair areexamples.
8The Minor Poems ofJohnLydgate,ed. HenryNoble MacCracken(London, 1934),
II, 418.
9The Poems of William Dunbar, ed. W. MackayMacKenzie(London, 1932),p. 113.

FRANK
DOGGETT
549
forexample,impliesthata birdsingingis likea poet

Aprilbringeth,"'
expressinghimselfin verse.Sidney's nightingalemourns with its
breastagainstthetraditionalsymbolicthorn,just as thepoet laments
love. The poet argues with the bird as though with
his frustrated
anotherpoet thatthesourceof his lamentlies deeper:"Thine earth
now springs,mine fadeth;/Thy thornwithout,mythornmyheart
invadeth."'l
William Drummondin thesonnet"Dear Quirister"listensto the
nightingaleand learnsfromits song thatit,too,is a poet expressing
thedeepestsorrowoflove.Miltonalso is awarethatthenightingaleis
a traditionalimageofpoetryas well as of love,and indicatesthedual
strandofmeaningin his earlysonnet"O Nightingale.""Whetherthe
muse,or Love call theehis mate,/BoththemI serve,and oftheirtrain
am I."'
theimagewas oftenused tocomparethe
century,
In theseventeenth
a
bird.
The mostfamousofthesefiguresis
to
the
of
song
artofthepoet
of Shakespeareas a singingbirdwarbling
Milton's characterization
"his native woodnotes wilde." Marvell uses a similar figure to
describethe soaringgenius of Milton in Paradise Lost:
Thou sing'stwith so much gravityand ease,
And above human flightdost soar aloft,
With plume so strong,so equal, and so soft:
The bird named fromthatparadise you sing
So neverflags,but always keeps on wing.'2
Marvellin "The Garden" had alreadyconceivedofhimselfas a bird
singingon a bough,derivinghis figurefromancientdepictionofthe
soul in birdformand adaptingit totheparticularcircumstanceofthe
poet celebratingthejoys of Eden.
Casting the body's vestaside,
My soul into the boughs does glide;
There, like a bird,it sitsand sings
Then whetsand combs its silverwings
And till preparedforlongerflight,
Waves in its plumes the various light. (100.51-56)
Comparisonsofthepoet to thesingingbird'3eventuallylead to the
?0ThePoems of Sir Philip Sidney,ed. W. A. Ringler,Jr.(Oxford,1962),p. 137.
"The Student'sMilton, ed. FrankAllen Patterson(New York, 1931),p. 29.
"Poems of AndrewMarvell,ed. G. A. Aitken(London, n.d.), p. 110, 11.36-40.
'3Comparisonsof thepoet to thesingingbirdcontinuedto be made and werecommonplace enough to occur in thecasual language ofcorrespondence.RichardSavage
wroteto a friendwhile in prison fordebt: "I am now moreconversantwith thenine

550
S7IN(GING
BIRD
reversecomparison. If poets can be consideredsinging birds,birds

can be consideredcomposing poets. Lady Winchelsea in "To the
Nightingale"'4assumes thatthe bird,while lacking speech,is, in a
sense,anotherpoet,and one whomshewishestoemulate,althoughit
outflies hermuse.A littlelater,anotherprecursorofromanticpoetry,
Mark Akenside,spoke of a nightingaleas "some sweeterpoet of the
shade."'5
A significantimplicationfortheRomanticconceptionof theimnot
age of thesingingbirdwas givenwhen thebirdwas characterized
onlyas a poet in his own right,butmasterofa superiorartthatcould
inspirethehuman poet. JamesThomson addressedthenightingale
as "best poet of thegrove"and wishedto enrichhis own artwiththe
lyricessence of its song: "O lend thatstrain,sweetnightingale,to
me!"''6And again, in The Seasons, Thomson invokedtheaid of the
nightingalesas he might,at anothertime,have invokedthatof the
muse.
Lend me yoursong, ye nightingales!0 pour
Thy masy-runningsoul of melody
Into my variedverse.(25.576-578)
lyricexpresRobertBurnsalso seeksinspirationfromtheeffortless
sion of the singing bird. He entreatsthe woodlark: "Again, again
thattenderpart/That I may catch thymeltingart."'7
Earlyin thenineteenthcentury,thesingingbirdbegan toseemnot
onlythemasterofa higherartbutevento filla rolesomewhatsimilar
to thatofthemuse.Traditionallythemusehad beentheconventional
as well as the idea of
image that personifiedcreativityand artistry
poetryitself.Through hertheconceptionofa poem,and itsfirstverbal improvisationemerged.In thatsenseshecould be understoodas a
personificationof a creativesource. She representedalso the poet's
the ability to bring his work to its
conscious and criticalartistry,
finished achievement. Gradually allusions to the muse lost
significanceas personificationand became little more than comthanever,and if,insteadofa Newgatebird,I maybe allowed tobe a birdoftheMuses,I
assure you, sir, I sing veryfreelyin my cage; sometimesin theplaintivenotesof the
nightingale;butat others,in thecheerfulstrainsofthelark."Samuel Johnson,Lives of
the English Poets (New York, 1968),II, 134.
"4ThePoems ofAnne Countessof Winchelsea,ed. MyraReynolds(Chicago, 1903),
pp. 267-268.
'5Poetical Works(London, 1835),p. 205.
'6The Complete Poetical WorksofJamesThomson, ed. J.Logie Robertson(London, 1951),p. 428.
1
' The CompletePoetical WorksofBurns,ed. William ErnestHendryand Thomas F.
Her)derson(Boston, 1897),p. 275.

FRANK
DOGGETT
551
pliance with an emptyconvention.Although major nineteenthcenturypoetsseldominvokedthemuse,therewas stilla needtorepresent the idea of theirart,and in severalfamouspoems theyseem to
have used the singing bird ratherthan the muse as an image of
creativity
and of theidea ofpoetry.Andjust as themuse,addressedas
a separatepowerthatruledhis art,evokedtheidea of thepoet'sinner
creativelife,so thebird,addressedas thoughit werea naturalartist,
evoked the idea of the creativelifeof the poet within.
II
in thename
As personification
oftheidea ofspontaneouscreativity
of the muse lapsed, the Romantic poets feltthattheyfounda true
creativesourcein theirapprehensionofa worldwithinthemor ofthe
world about them that theycalled "Nature." Coleridge in "The
Nightingale:A ConversationPoem" advises thepoet to seekhis inspirationfromthe naturalworld:
to the influxes
Of shapes and sounds and shiftingelements
Surrenderinghis whole spirit,of his song
So his fame
And of his frameforgetful!
Should sharein Nature's immortality.'8
Some Romanticpoets saw in thefigureof thesingingbirdan inin thenaturalworld,an image illustrativeof the
stanceof creativity
creativeact and morespecificthan theabstractword "nature." One
characteristic
of Romanticismwas the special value given to sponThe birdalso was an organiccreatureand partof
taneouscreativity.
the world of observedreality,part of that "nature" which forthe
romanticpoet had such essential value and meaning. Therefore,
when the singing bird appeared in early Romantic poetry,it was
presentedas a creature,an instanceand a voiceof thenaturalworld.
In Coleridge's conversationpoem, the nightingale is a voice of
nature,ratherthana symbolofpoetry,and itssongis an intimationof
the primal realityout of which issue the springsof creativity.
birdsare naturalcreaturesand illustrateideas rather
Wordsworth's
thansymbolizethem,yetat timestheyevoketheidea ofthesoul. "The
GreenLinnet,"forinstance,is "A Life,a PresenceliketheAir" (159).
"To theCuckoo" remarksthatthebirdseemstoexistonlyin itssong.
of its being suggestthe idea of spirit:
The invisibility,the mystery
"No bird,but an invisiblething,/A voice, a mystery"(183).
18ThePortable Coleridge,ed. I. A. Richards (New York, 1950),p. 145,11.27-31.

552
SINGING
BIRD
of
As an image of the soul, of the poet's spontaneouscreativity,
natureas a creativesource,thesingingbirdwas a complexofinherent
suggestivenessforthe Romantic poets. These elementscombine to
formthe shiftingsignificanceof Shelley's "To a Skylark."'9In the
opening Shelleyaddresseshis bird as a spiritand, like Wordsworth
who says that the cuckoo was "no bird, but an invisible thing,"
Shelley says of his skylark:"bird thou neverwert." Rather than a
physicalcreature,it is, he implies,an essenceor idea ofa feelingthat
he associateswiththeimage-"like an unbodiedjoy," he says.Then
ofthebird,he emphasizesthe
bya seriesofallusions to theinvisibility
of the lyricsource.
imperceptibility
by its
The symboliccharacterof Shelley'sskylarkis strengthened
an image of the
activity.Actiontendsto individualize,and therefore
soul becomesan image of theselfwhen depictedin relationtoa functionor an act. Thus thelark singingbecomeseasily and naturallya
symbolof the poet composing. Enhancing this aptitude forsymbolism in thefigureof thesingingbirdis a propensityof thepoet to
ofthebirdimagehisconceptofhis
associatewithhischaracterization
art or ratherof the aspiration of his art. Wordsworth'sskylarkis:
"Type of thewise who soar, but neverroam;/True to the kindred
points of Heaven and Home!" (209). The flightof Shelley'sskylark
suggestshis conceptof thehigh functionofhis artas describedin "A
Defenseof Poetry":"to bringlightand firefromthoseeternalregions
where the owl-winged facultyof calculation dare not ever soar"
(1050). When Shelley'sskylarkis associatedin thisway withhis idea
of art,thenthevastspace throughwhichit soarscan be conceivedas
space withinthe self,one existingin thought,and theflightof the
bird as a symbolicflightlike its singing. With thisconnotationin
mind,Shelley'ssingingbirdin itselfsuggeststheidea ofa poetin the
moment of the rapture of invention and open to the springs of
fromwhich issue lightand sound and musicand thought.
creativity
Shelleyin "A Defenseof Poetry"said of poetrythatits birthand
recurrencehad no necessaryconnectionwithconsciousnessor will.
beforethereasonedcompositionofa
The momentof pure creativity
poem was thesuprememomentofpoetry.The poet's mindwas then,
Shelleybelieved,an agentof unconsciouscreativeforces:"the mind
in creationis as a fadingcoal, whichsomeinvisibleinfluence,likean
inconstantwind,awakens to transitory
brightness;thispowerarises
of
the
color
a
flower
which
fadesand changesas itis
like
fromwithin,
of
our
naturesareunprophetic
the
conscious
and
portions
developed,
'9ShelleySelectedPoetry,Prose and Letters,ed. A. S. B. Glover(London, 1951),pp.
763-766.

FRANK
DOGGETT
553
eitherofitsapproachor itsdeparture.Could thisinfluencebe durable

in its purityand force,it is impossibleto predictthegreatnessof the
results;but when compositionbegins,inspirationis alreadyon the
decline, and the most glorious poetry that has ever been communicatedto the world is probablya feebleshadow of theoriginal
conceptionsof thepoet" (1050). This accountofcreativerapturewas
writtenless thana yearafter"To a Skylark,"and setsforththeconas
ceptthatShelleyhad symbolizedin thepoem: theidea ofcreativity
a subliminal power thatriseswithintheselfbut ultimatelysprings
fromnatural forces.That Shelley had some conceptionof the unconscious is evidentfroma statementin the essay thatpoetryas a
creativeforce"acts in a divineand unapprehendedmanner,beyond
and above consciousness" (1030). And the imageryof the poem is
remarkablysuggestiveof the unconscious as a creativesource.
The seriesof analogies thatcompose mostof thepoem are images
The mosttellingis thatofthepoetwhosemind
suggestingcreativity.
is illuminedbytheconceptionout ofwhicha poem is written:"Like
a poet hidden/In thelightofthought."This is thefirstofthestanzaic
similesthatcomparetheskylarkto fourconcealed secretthings:the
poet hidden,themaidenin a tower,theglow-wormin a dell,therose
embowered.These comparisionsdepicta hiddensourceofcreativity,
a secluded center,out of which emanates somethingrich and pervading:fromthepoethis poetry,fromthemaidenhermusic,fromthe
glow-wormits golden light,fromthe rose the too sweetscent.
The significanceof the simile thatcompares singing skylarkto
composingpoet becomesevidentin thelatterhalfofthepoem. There
the singing bird is again compared to a poet and this time to one
whose lyricflowsurpassesall thepoets who writeof love and wine
and marriageand triumph.The comparisionsuggeststheidea of a
creativeunconsciousor of inspiration,accordingto theterminology
of thatday. The poem closes withan invocationto theskylark,now
Like inidentifiedby theinvocationitselfas an image of creativity.
vocationsto themuse in an earliertime,it asks thatthesingingbird
inspirethe workof the poet.
III
"A poet is a nightingale,"Shelley saysin "A Defenseof Poetry,"

"who sitsin darknessand sings to cheerits own solitudewithsweet
sounds;his auditorsare as menentrancedby themelodyofan unseen
musician,who feel thattheyare moved and softened,yetknow not
whenceor why" (1031).The passage is almosta gloss ofKeats'sgreat
invocationof thesingingbirdwrittena fewyearsearlier.In "Ode toa

554
SINGING
BIRD
thepoet is an auditorand longs to becomeone with

Nightingale,"20
the invisiblebird. "Darkling, I listen,"he says hid in the shadowy
covertof "verduousglooms." There is an echo hereof a passage in
Paradise Lost neartheopening of thethirdbook. Milton,to indicate
thathe composeshis poem in thedarkofhis blindness,compareshis
lot as a poet to thatof thenightingalewho "sings darkling,and in
shadiestcoverthid" (196.39).
The darkness,the rapt auditor and the invisible bird are basic
elementsof theconventionthatgrewup about nightingalepoems.
Otherelementsin theconventionare themoon and attendantstars,
theprofusionof flowers,theshadowygroveand thickundergrowth,
the forestnearby,the song thatis theessenceof poetry-its feeling
withoutits words,sorrowfulin the Renaissance but joyfulforthe
Romantic poets. Traditionally,natureitselfoftenattendsthesong.
The conventionmay presenta meditationon man's weaknessand
as a contrastto theidealizationof thesong of thebird,and
mortality,
throughthatidealization the bird's implied ideal existence.
Althoughmostnightingalepoems containthebasic elements,and
several contain more, few contain all. Because of its importance
Keats'spoem has becomethemeasureof theconvention.MarkAkenside's poem on the nightingaleentitled "To the Evening Star,"
writtenmorethana halfcenturyearlier,has themoon and stars,the
darkness,the thicket,the forest,attentivenature,the rapt auditor
listeningto thesong and thinkingofhumanills and thetransienceof
life.There is even the flightof the birdand theremoveofitssongas
in Keats,althoughin Akenside'spoem theauditorfollowsthebirdin
orderto continueto listen.Coleridge'snightingalepoem usesmostof
theconventionalelementsbut,trueto itscharacteras a conversation
poem, theconventionsare scatteredand thepoem rambleson, with
the moonlightmentionedat the end in an afterthought.
Preliminaryto Keats'sgreatode, therewas notonlytheconvention
tendingto shape discoursewithinpoems on the nightingale,there
was also thecommonfundofpoeticimagerythatspokeofwingsand
flightin relationto poetsand poetry.Keats'slettersand earlypoems
contain much imageryof this kind, as in his last letterto Shelley
wherehe advisesthatpoet to disciplinehis birdliketendencytoward
spontaneity."The thoughtof such discipline must fall like cold
chains upon you, Who perhapsneversetwithyourwingsfurledfor
'21
six Months together.'
20TheCompletePoetical WorksofKeats,ed. Horace E. Scudder(Cambridge,Mass.,
1899),pp. 144-146.
Buxton Forman (Oxford,1931), II, 553.
2IThe Lettersof John Keats, ed. NMaurice

FRANK
DOGGETT
555
One birdimage in theearlypoems anticipatesa passage of"Ode to

a Nightingale"in its impliedwish to see theworldfadeaway. In the
verseepistle,"To My BrotherGeorge," he conceivesof his own artistryin termsof the flightof a bird.
Fair world,adieu!
Thy dales, and hills, are fadingfrommy view!
SwiftlyI mount,upon wide spreadingpinions,
Far fromthe narrowbounds of thydominions.(25.103-106)
A reciprocalnotionto thatofa poet withwingsand in flightis the
figureof a birdsingingthelanguage and thoughtof a poem,a conceptwitha long traditionbehindit.The poemsKeatswrotein which
birdssang poetryreinforcedtheassociationhe apparentlyhad long
feltbetweenbird imageryand poets or poetry.One of these,"What
the Thrush Said," presenteda singing bird as an embodimentof
and spontaneitywho could give thepoet adviceon inspiracreativity
forthepoetcamefroma
tion.What thethrushsaid was thatcreativity
natural source.
O fretnot afterknowledge-I have none,
And yetmy song comes nativewith the warmth.
O fretnot afterknowledge-I have none,
And yetthe Evening listens.(43)
witha comThe thrushconcludeshis lesson on thepoet's creativity
parison of poetic vision to dream thatanticipatesthe concluding
lines of "Ode to a Nightingale": "And he's awake who thinks
himselfasleep.'"
Keats's otherbird who sings poems is a nightingale.A letterto
George and Georgiana Keats, writtenshortlybefore "Ode to a
Nightingale,"includeda poem he had just finished,he said, "on the
of Poets" (1.288).The poem, "Bards of Passion
double immortality
and of Mirth,"describesthedead poets,who are immortalin their
in heaven.There they
earthlyfame,enjoyingtheirotherimmortality
listento thesong of thenightingalewho, in itsheavenlyperfection,
sings not meaninglesstonesbut poems.
Wherethe nightingaledoth sing
Not a senseless,trancedthing,
But divine melodious truth;
Philosophic numberssmooth;
Tales and golden histories
Of Heaven and its Mysteries.(125.17-22)

556
SINGING
BIRD
This nightingaleis an idealizedpoet who has achievedthepoetry

that Keats must have aspired to writein the yearthatbroughtthe
"philosophic numbers"of thegreatodes, the"tales" of "The Eve of
St. Agnes" and "Lamia," "the golden histories" of the two
Hyperions.A fewmonthsafter"Bards of Passion and of Mirth"was
written,the conversationwith Coleridge occurredand the list of
topicsincluded"Nightingales,Poetry"(1 1.349).The twotopicswere
in apparentassociation as thepunctuationwould indicate.Thus it
was notonlywitha backgroundofthetraditionthatrelatedbirdsong
and poetrybut also witha recentconnectionbetweenthetwo in his
own mind thatKeats began the compositionof his greatode.
In itsopening,"Ode toa Nightingale"presentsthesongofthebird
and itsauditoras a poet comprehendingthe
as spontaneousartistry
composition. Longing foridentificationwith the
joy of effortless
singing,he wishes to "leave theworldunseen,/And with theefade
away into theforestdim." His need to leave theworldin ordertofind
thenightingaleindicatesthatthesingingbirdofKeats'sode is an inhabitantof an imaginedand idealizedrealm,like thenightingaleof
"Bards of Passion and of Mirth," and that "the forestdim" is a
metaphoricalplace, an image withancientconnotationsof thedark
innerbeing of man.
Withthepassage in which thepoet takesto thewingsofpoetryto
seek thenightingale,thesymbolismof Keats'ssingingbirdbeginsto
suggestits elusive meaning.The imageryof the passage continues
therecurrencein Keats's workof figuresof wings and flightin relation to poetryand poets.The passage implies thatthepoet will not
ofintoxication,
in theeuphoriaand irrationality
seektranscendence
"But on theviewlesswingsofPoesy/Though thedull brainperplexes and retards."Even thoughthementallaborofcompositionretards
him,he saysthatto findthenightingalehe will flytheworld"on the
viewlesswingsof Poesy." With thisphrase thepoet suggeststhathe
feelsthe exaltationof thecreativeprocess. "Alreadywith thee," he
says,and now he has an intuitionof his poem.
The wish to die of thesixthstanzathatostensiblyis a desireforthe
also seemsto be an instanceof
last momentto be one ofinspiration22
the
toward
unconscious, the source of
instinctive
turning
Keats's
creativity.He has, he says,expressedthe wish "in many a mused
rhyme."One of theseis a passage (53-60) in "Sleep and Poetry"in
which thepoet would die entrancedbythearttowhichhe aspiresand
soar to theideal realm,the"wide heaven" of "Poesy." This termfor
22ElliotGilbertbelievesthatthenightingaleis "a symbolof poeticinspirationand
fulfillment."The Poetryof John Keats (New York, 1965),p. 44.

FRANK
DOGGETT
557
theessenceof theartof thepoet is depictedin "Sleep and Poetry"as a

facebetweenspreadingwings;in thewordsofthepoem theemblemis
a display "Of outspreadwings,and frombetweenthemshone/The
faceof Poesy" (23-24.393-394).
figure;
This imageof "Poesy" is indicativeofa persistent
recurring
in itselfit is onlya conventionalemblem.The nightingale,however,
has thecharacterof a truesymbol:apparentactuality,subtleand indefinitereference,
an importthatis nevergiven,although pervasive
and possible.Withall itsseemingactuality,thesong of thebirdis its
only presence.It does not exist"here,"as Keats says,in theworldof
physicalbeing"wheremen sitand heareach othergroan," buton an
abstractplane removedfrom"the weariness,thefever,and thefret."
The importofKeats'ssingingbird-the essenceor spiritofpoetry,an
idealizationof theartof thepoet thathe oftencalls "Poesy"-is evidentonlywhenthebirdis realizedas a transcendent
and agelessvoice,
nevervisualizedor given physicalembodiment.23
Iv
Two impressionsofthesourceoflyricexpressionare oftenoffered

One regardsitas an overflowofthespringsof
as opposing concepts.24
the lifeforce,an outpouringof naturalvitality.The othersupposes
that the lyricis a floweringgrown fromsome anguish or passion
buried in the unconscious.The singing bird of the firsthalf of the
nineteenthcenturyillustratesthe view that poetryissues fromthe
creativefountainof thelivingcreature.In thelatterhalfof thecentury,the singingbird became again thevoice of Philomela and old
lost bitterness.
The song of the nightingalewould have recalled the mythof
Philomela toa pre-Romanticpoet.The earlypoemsofKeatsmention
Philomela,butthename is all thatremainsof themythand itsthesis
that the voice of the nightingaleis the voice of suffering.What
happened, then,to the Philomela storyduring the firsthalf of the
nineteenthcentury?Coleridgegives one answerin his conversation
poem on thenightingale: "In naturethereis nothingmelancholy"
23rThe birdis a universaland undyingvoice:thevoiceofnature,ofimaginativesymof an ideal romanticpoetry...." Richard HarterFogle, "Keats'
pathy,and therefore
'Ode to a Nightingale,'" PMLA, 69 (1953), 217.
24' 'Two theoriesabout the complex and ancient art of poetryhave specially impressedme. They are opposite,yeteach seemstrue,and I can subscribeto both.One is
thatpoetrycomes froman excessofelan vital.It is an overflowingofpowerfulfeelings
froma healthypsyche.A poet is a normalman withsuperabundantcreativepowers.
The otheris thatpoetrycomes froma sick soul and is to heal or make up forpsychic
deficiencies.One can namepoetsin eithercategory."RichardEberhardt,"How I Write
Poetry"in Poets on Poetry.ed. Howard Nemerov(New York, 1966),p. 19.

558
SINGING
BIRD
(145.37). The characterizationof the song of the nightingale in

Coleridge'spoem set the tone forthe firsthalf of the century.
'Tis the merrynightingale
That crowds,and hurries,and precipitates
With fastthickwarble his delicious notes. (43-45)
evidentin
The contrasttothetoneofColeridge'spoem is strikingly
Matthew Arnold's characterizationof the song of his bird in
"Philomela."
How thickthe burstscome crowdingthroughthe leaves!
Again-thou hearest!
Eternalpassion!
Eternalpain!25
Arnold'stoneis ofa typeoftenencounteredin poemson singingbirds
in thedecliningyearsofthecentury.Elementsofthenightingaleconventionpersist,as theydo in Arnold'spoem,butthetenoris setbythe
mythof Philomela. Arnold's bird voice is explicitlythatof Ovid's
storyof thestrickenwoman expressingsorrowin thewordlesspoetry
of song.
Swinburne's"Itylus" is anotherexample of thedominanceof the
Philomela tenorin the late nineteenthcentury.Swinburne'sbirdis
in theoutpouringof grief
an expressionistpoet findingfulfillment
become song. She reproachesher sister,the swallow, forherhappy
singing,and characterizesher own song as a kind of catharsis:
But I fulfilledof my heart'sdesire,
Shedding mysong upon height,upon hollow,
From tawnybody and sweetsmall mouth
Feed the heartof the nightwith fire.26
rhe essenceof the meaning of the mythwithoutallusion to the
mythitselfis presentedin Bridges'"Nightingales."Abstracttheidea
fromits names and its legends and what is leftis the concept that
poetry(or song) is rooted in dark emotion. "Nightingales" is a
dialogue betweenan imagined readerofpoetryand thenightingales
(or poets). Readerand poets talk in thenight-probably to indicate
the darkness of the subjective interiorexperience of art. In the
dialogue, the imagined reader of poetrysupposes that poetryis
25ThePoetical WorksofMatthewArnold,ed. C.B. Tinkerand H. F. Lowry(London,
1950),p. 201.
26Poemsand Ballads (London, 1869),p. 62.

FRANK
DOGGETT
559
createdin an environmentof ease and beauty.On thecontrary,the

nightingalesreply:
Our song is the voice of desire,thathaunts our dreams,
A throeof the heart,
Whose pining visions dim, forbiddenhopes profound,
No dyingcadence nor long sigh can sound,
For all our art.27
Accordingto thenightingales,poetryemanatesfromunresolveddistress,whetherthe specificanguish of the myth,or the indefinable
ofcomposidesolationof theisolate self,or even themeredifficulty
tion.
The poem has some of,theeffectof an aubade or dialogue before
dawn betweenlovers. In the aubade, one of the speakersis an illusionist who interpretsthe sounds of approaching day as night
sounds,and theother,a realistwho recognizestheveritablesignsof
morning.Although the speakersin Bridges' poem are not cast as
lovers,theyapproximate the roles of illusionist and realistin the
aubade. The partof theillusionistin "Nightingales"is takenbythe
imagined reader.He assumes that poetryissues fromthe idealized
landscape of the nightingaleconvention.The part of the realistis
takenby thepoets who are presentedas nightingales.They say that
theenvironmentof thepoet is difficultand severe,thathe createshis
poetryin a harshworld and wringshis beautifullanguage fromhis
barrenmind. As in the aubade, thepoem ends withdaybreakwhen
the nightingales are silent and "the innumerable choir of day/
Welcome the dawn."28 The implication of the conclusion is that
poetryis no longer heard when the consciousnessis filledwith the
many voices of daily communication.
In "Nightingales,"Bridgesuses symboliclandscape to expressthe
idea of thesourceofpoetry.The landscapeconceivedbythereadersof
poetryis similarto thatofthenightingaleconvention.The landscape
describedbythepoets(or nightingales)is influencedbytheconceptof
thesourceof poetryof thePhilomela myth.Landscape and song are
27PoeticalWorksof RobertBridges(Londoni, 1936),p. 311.

28Thebeautifulphrase "innumerablechoir of day" and thedawn sceneof Bridges'
poem were anticipatedby Blake in a passage fromMilton:
Thou hearestthe Nightingalebegin the Song of Spring.
The Lark, sittingupoIn his earthybed, just as the morn
Appears, listenssilent; then,spriniginig
fromthe waving
corn-field,loud
of Day.
He leads the CJhoir

560
SINGING
BIRD
accordantin the nightingaleconventionbut in Bridges'poem the

beautyof the song is in contrastwith its harshenvironment.
Hardy's greatsinging bird poem, "The Darkling Thrush," also
contraststhehappy quality of song with its cold and bleak environment. Weatherand scene in "The Darkling Thrush" are a kind of
symboliclanguage repeatinga themeoftenimplied in thepoetryof
Hardy-the idea thatthehuman circumstanceis so adversethathappinessis possibleonlybecause theselfis intenton theimmediateand
failsto realizeinevitablemiseryand death.Hardy'spoem was written
shortlyafterthe end of the nineteenthcenturyand his landscape
the idea of thedead century.Induced by that
representsfiguratively
pervadesthesetting
idea, a senseoffinalityand impendingmortality
of thepoem.
Suddenly the bitterweatherand desolate scene resoundwith the
voice of Hardy's singing bird,evidence that the "ancient pulse of
germand birth,"although shrunken,is latentand possible.
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigsoverhead
evensong
In a full-hearted
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush,frail,gaunt, and small,
plume,
In blast-beruffled
Had chosen thus to flinghis soul
Upon thegrowinggloom.29
The significance,it mightseem, of Hardy's singing bird would
follow the symbolicmodes establishedby otherromanticpoets,especiallyin viewofa comparisonin thefirststanzaoftangledstemsto
"stringsof brokenlyres."Hardy'sdarklingthrushin theconcluding
linesof thepoem seemsto transcendtherealityofitsexistencein a vision of "Hope," in accordance with romantic traditions.The
howeveris givenin termsof thelistener'simpression
transcendence
of thequalityof thesong. The birdis real; theweatherand sceneare
symbolic.The thoughtof thegrimlandscape as corpsefromwhich
thebird"had chosen thusto flinghis soul" in song, thesuggestion
"thatI could think"thebirdheldsome "blessedHope," is onlyan account of the song's effecton the listener.The effecton him is to
of
enhancehis senseofmortalityin contrastto thebird'saffirmation
life.
29CollectedPoems of Thomas Hardy (New York, 1925),p. 137.

FRANK
DOGGETT
561
So littlecause forcarolings
Of such ecstaticsound
things
Was writtenon terrestrial
Afaror nigh around,
That I could thinktheretrembledthrough
His happy good-nightair
Some blessedHope, whereofhe knew
And I was unaware. (137)
an instanceofanimatebeing,
The imageofthebirdis synechdoche,
and not a figurestandingfortheidea ofpoetry.The "blessedHope"
of thedarklingthrush,if takenliterally,could be no morethan the
simpleexpectationofa continuanceofbeing-anticipation ofa next
and fairerday,perhaps."Song ofHope" publishedwith "The Darkling Thrush" defineshope as anticipationof the next brightday:
"Tomorrow shines soon-/Shines soon!) (121).
The senseofjoy in beingexpressedbythedarklingthrushis a later
versionof theidea ofsong embodiedin thefigureof thesingingbird
bypoetsof theearlynineteenthcentury.This idea ofthebasisoflyric
spontaneitycontrastssharplywith thetenorof thePhilomela myth
adumbratedby the singing bird for Arnold and Swinburne and
Bridges.On the immediate,the non-symboliclevel,an overflowof
vitalityseems to be the sourceof the singingof Coleridge's "merry
ofthe"singnightingale,"of the"shrilldelight"ofShelley'sskylark,
ease" of Keats'sbirdwhenitis regarding of summerin full-throated
ed as a live creature.Thus Hardy'ssingingbird,althoughpresented
on thelevelof theactual ratherthanthatofthesymbolic,exemplified
a conceptofthelyricimpulse30thatthesymbolicimageevincedin the
workof theearlierRomantic poets.
30"Literatureis conservedspeech, speech is significantsong, and song is a pure

overflowof the psychein her momentsof freeplay and vital leisure." George Santayana,Realms of Being, (New York, 1942),p. 346.


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