[29.] How thick the bursts, etc. Compare with the following lines from Coleridge:—
"'Tis the merry nightingale
That crowds and hurries and precipitates
With fast, thick warble his delicious notes,
As he were fearful that an April night
Would be too short for him to utter forth
His love-chant, and disburthen his full soul
Of all its music!"
—The Nightingale.
Also
"O Nightingale! thou surely art
A creature of a 'fiery heart':—
These notes of thine—they pierce and pierce;
Tumultuous harmony and fierce!
Thou sing'st as if the god of wine
Had helped thee to a Valentine."
—WORDSWORTH.
[31-32.] Eternal passion!
Eternal pain! Compare:—
"Thou warblest sad thy pity-pleading strains."
—COLERIDGE, To a Nightingale.
and
"Sweet bird ...
Most musical, most melancholy!"
—MILTON, Il Penseroso.
Image the scene in the poem. How does the author secure the proper atmosphere for the theme of the poem? Account for the note of triumph in the nightingale's song; note of pain. What [p.186] is shown by the poet's question, ll. 10-15? What new qualities are added to the nightingale's song, l. 25? Account for them. Why eternal passion, eternal pain? Do you feel the form of verse used (Pindaric blank) to be adapted to the theme?