Social Commentaries
The Hoopoe's Invocation to the Nightingale
From The Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed (1886)
Waken, dear one, from thy slumbers;
Pour again those holy numbers,
Which thou warblest there alone
In a heaven-instructed tone,
Mourning from this leafy shrine
Lost--lost Itys, mine and thine,
In the melancholy cry
Of a mother’s agony.
Echo, ere the murmurs fade,
Bear them from the yew tree’s shade
To the throne of Jove; and there,
Phœbus with his golden hair
Listens long, and loves to suit
To his ivory-mounted lute
Thy sad music; at the sound
All the gods come dancing round,
And a sympathetic song
Peals from the immortal throng.
Cite this poem
MLA
Praed, Winthrop Mackworth. “The Hoopoe's Invocation to the Nightingale.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/praed/42/.
Chicago
Praed, Winthrop Mackworth. “The Hoopoe's Invocation to the Nightingale.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/praed/42/.
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