The Poet And The Bird
Said a people to a poet "Go out from among us straightway! While we are thinking earthly things, thou singest of divine. There's a little fair brown nightingale, who, sitting in the gateways Makes fitter music to our ears than any song of thine!" The poet went out weeping the nightingale ceased chanting; "Now, wherefore, O thou nightingale, is all thy sweetness done?" I cannot sing my earthly things, the heavenly poet wanting, Whose highest harmony includes the lowest under sun." The poet went out weeping, and died abroad, bereft there The bird flew to his grave and died, amid a thousand wails: And, when I last came by the place, I swear the music left there Was only of the poet's song, and not the nightingale's.
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"Said a people to a poet "Go out from among us straightway!..."
"The Poet And The Bird" is a quintessential example of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...