O Nightingale! Who ever heard thy song Might here be moved, till Fancy grows so strong That listening sense is pardonably cheated 15 Where wood or stream by thee was never greeted.[996] Surely, from fairest spots of favoured lands, Were not some gifts withheld by jealous hands, This hour of deepening darkness here would be As a fresh morning for new harmony; 20 And lays as prompt would hail the dawn of Night: A _dawn_ she has both beautiful and bright, When the East kindles with the full moon's light;[997] Not like the rising sun's impatient glow Dazzling the mountains, but an overflow 25 Of solemn splendour, in mutation slow. Wanderer by spring with gradual progress led, For sway profoundly felt as widely spread; To king, to peasant, to rough sailor, dear, And to the soldier's trumpet-wearied ear; 30 How welcome wouldst thou be to this green Vale Fairer than Tempe![998] Yet, sweet Nightingale! From the warm breeze that bears thee on, alight At will, and stay thy migratory flight; Build, at thy choice, or sing, by pool or fount, 35 Who shall complain, or call thee to account? The wisest, happiest, of our kind are they That ever walk content with Nature's way, God's goodness--measuring bounty as it may; For whom the gravest thought of what they miss, 40 Chastening the fulness of a present bliss, Is with that wholesome office satisfied, While unrepining sadness is allied In thankful bosoms to a modest pride. FOOTNOTES: [995] Compare the _Lines, composed at Grasmere_ in 1806 (vol iv. p. 48), when Mr. Fox's death was hourly expected-- Yon star upon the mountain-top Is listening quietly.--ED. [996] The nightingale is not usually heard in England farther north than the valley of the Trent. Compare _The Excursion_, book iv. l. 1167 (vol. v. p. 188); also the lines (vol. iv, p. 67) beginning-- O Nightingale! thou surely art A creature of a "fiery heart."--ED. [997] 1837. ... moon's light. Wanderer by ... 1835. [998] The Thessalian valley, five miles long, from Olympus to Ossa, through which the Peneus makes its way to the Ægean sea.--ED. "SOFT AS A CLOUD IS YON BLUE RIDGE--THE MERE" Composed 1834.--Published 1835 One of the "Evening Voluntaries."--ED.