Skip to content
Linespedia

Philomel.

Topics: classic

Lo, as a minstrel at the court of Love,          The nightingale, who knows his mate is nigh,         Thrills into rapture; and the stars above          Look down, affrighted, as they would reply.          There is contagion, and I know not why,         In all this clamour, all this fierce delight,          As if the sunset, when the day did swoon,          Had drawn some wild confession from the moon.         Have wrongs been done? Have crimes enacted been         To shame the weird retirement of the night?          O clamourous bird! O sad; sweet nightingale!         Withhold thy voice, and blame not Beauty's queen.          She may be pure, though dumb: and she is pale,         And wears a radiance on her brow serene.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"Lo, as a minstrel at the court of Love,..."

Eric Mackay's contribution to classic is further solidified by the brilliance found in "Philomel."... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Classified Tags

Related lines

"I.         I who have sung of love and lady bright         And mirth and music and the world's delight,          Behold! to-day, I sound a ste"

"I.                     'Tis a legend of a lover,                      'Tis a ballad to be sung,                     In the gloaming, - under c"

"He is a seer. He wears the wedding-ring          Of Art and Nature; and his voice is bold.         He should be quicker than the birds to si"

"A Dirge.     I.         Art thou lonely in thy tomb?         Art thou cold in such a gloom?         Rouse thee, then, and make me room,"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Continue Reading

"I.         I who have sung of love and lady brigh..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.