Poor melancholy bird---that all night long <br />Tell'st to the Moon, thy tale of tender woe; <br />From what sad cause can such sweet sorrow flow, <br />And whence this mournful melody of song? <br /> <br />Thy poet's musing fancy would translate <br />What mean the sounds that swell thy little breast, <br />When still at dewy eve thou leav'st thy nest, <br />Thus to the listening night to sing thy fate! <br /> <br />Pale Sorrow's victims wert thou once among, <br />Tho' now releas'd in woodlands wild to rove? <br />Say---hast thou felt from friends some cruel wrong, <br />Or diedst thou---martyr of disastrous love? <br />Ah! songstress sad! that such my lot might be, <br />To sigh and sing at liberty---like thee!<br /><br />Charlotte Smith<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-iii-to-a-nightingale/
