"I'D CHOOSE TO BE A NIGHTINGALE."
Reading edition
Answer to a Poem which appeared in a daily paper, with the above title, signed "Mary" (Llandovery.)
Gentle Mary! Do you know What it is you crave? Listen! As the flowers grow O'er the dismal grave, So, when sweetest sings the bird Thou would'st like to be, When in twilight's hour is heard The magic melody, Harshly comes the cruel thorn Against the songster's breast, And melting music thus is born Of pain and sad unrest (a) So if like Philomel thou'dst sing, And happiness impart, Thy breast must bear the cruel sting That haunts the songster's heart.
(a) There is a poetic legend, which says that when the Nightingale sings the sweetest, it presses its breast against a thorn.