Or new love pine at them beyond to-morrow."
The nightingale has not known like him
"The weariness, the fever and the fret
Here where men sit and hear each other groan."
Miss Brawne had embittered his life and hence he must fly at least in fancy through poetry with the bird. Again he finds consolation for his unhappy love in poetry.
He has been half in love with death, he has thought of taking to drink; he expressed both these ideas in previous poems. He is reminded that the nightingale's song was heard by Ruth, because love is uppermost in his mind. But he knows his fancied flight with the bird must end shortly. He will soon come back to his real self with the vexing thoughts of Fanny.
"Adieu the fancy cannot cheat so well
As she is famed to do, deceiving elf."
Then the music ceased, and he is back on earth again.
The unconscious sex symbolism in the wish to fly with the nightingale is a further proof of his unsatisfied love.