TO THE NIGHTINGALE. Anne Hunter (née Home) Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Hunter, Anne Home (Mrs. John), 1742-1821. Poems, by Mrs. John Hunter. London Printed for T. Payne, Mews Gate, by T. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Street 1802 pp. 35-36.

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TO THE NIGHTINGALE . WHY from these shades , sweet bird of eve , Art thou to other regions wildly fled ? Thy pensive song would oft my cares relieve , Thy melancholy softness oft would shed Peace on my weary soul : return again , Return , and , sadly sweet , in melting notes complain . At the still hour I'll come alone , And listen to thy love-lorn plaintive lay ; Or when the moon beams o'er yon mossy stone , I'll watch thy restless wing from spray to spray , And when the swelling cadence slow shall rise , I'll join the harmony with low and murm'ring sighs . Oh , simple bird ! where art thou flown ? What distant woodland now receives thy nest ? What distant echo answers to thy moan , What distant thorn supports thy aching breast ? Whoe'er can feel thy misery like me , Or pay thee for thy song with such sad sympathy ?