By The Landlord
“The nightingale is sovereign of song.” – Edmund Spenser
“It is modest of the nightingale not to require anyone to listen to it; but it is also proud of the nightingale not to care whether any one listens to it or not.” – Soren Kierkegaard
“Thou wast not born for death, immortal bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown.” – John Keats
“Where the nightingale doth sing
Not a senseless, tranced thing,
But divine melodious truth.” – John Keats
“Fare thee well my nightingale, I
lived but to be near you.
Though you are singing somewhere still, I
can no longer hear you.” – Leonard Cohen
“Sweet bird that shunn'st the nose of folly,
Most musical, most melancholy!
Thee, chauntress, oft, the woods among,
I woo, to hear thy even-song.” – John Milton
“If there’s one thing I never do, it’s stop.” – Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale
“It’s getting dark, and by the house,
A mother lays her young to sleep;
Beside them she too fell asleep.
All now went still, and just the girls
And nightingale their vigil keep.” – Taras Shevchenko, “Садок вишневий коло хати”, Ukraine, 1847
Everybody's heard,
About a word,
It’s a topic word,
The word is a bird.
A riff-repeating bird,
And that bird is referred,
When not in a rush,
As Luscinia megarhynchos.
But there's two in this bush -
The Turdus Philomelos
Or Turdus Musicus.
What? Yes that’s the thrush.
So – for a thousand years or more,
Oral, written, poems to folklore,
The nightingale’s singing splendour
Has brought the quill and ink to pour
For this performer, lover, fighter,
Inspiring also many a songwriter.
From poetic argument ‘tween nightingale and owl,
On music and song to other subjects fowl,
Anonymous poem from the medieval page,
Now translated by one Simon Armitage.
To Homer’s Odyssey on myths of Philomel,
Resonantly rang a thrilling, trilling bell
Planted a tree, sang out with power
Inspiring others, Chaucer to Gower,
Catching the very sharpest of ear
In sonnet form of one Shakespeare,
To a song set in Berkeley Square,
Sentimental wartime, a soft fanfare
By Manning Sherwin and Eric Maschwitz.
But before came flutes of Beethoven and Franz Liszt,
Twittered imitations, woodwind, or bowed,
To pastoral in Coleridge, and Keats’s famous Ode,
So many a phrase, a song and a tale
Circles right back to the great nightingale.
An illuminated wire sculpture of a nightingale, displayed in London's Berkeley Square as part of Lumiere London 2018, by French artist Cédric Le Borgne
In colour, size, other degrees,
Bush, branch, meadow, nooks and trees
Fitting feathered families,
Flitting into sub-species,
Winging ways to catching flies,
Singing endlessly, personal reprise,
One northern number for ear and eye:
Luscinia svecica volgae –
Want to hit that Latin note?
The common name is the bluethroat
Donning splendid orange-blue coat,
To match the songs, note for note,
Inspiring all with so much gusto,
Including poet Taras Shevchenko,
Arrested as independence pusher
From imperialist 19th-century Russia,
Telling sad and joyful stories,
Passionate defence of its territories,
Singing notes of passion and pain:
Nightingale's the national bird of Ukraine.
Topical colours: The bluethroat or Luscinia svecica volgae
But also out of thicket and bush,
The thrush is given its own special push:
Ted Hughes, Edward Thomas, or Thomas Hardy
Admired its unstoppable ability to party:
“An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.”
But poets are not the sole admirers
Of thrush stamina and vocal inspirers
‘Throstles’ the nickname, with energy
For West Bromwich Albion FC.
West Bromwich Albion’s FC’s Throstle
Chook-chook, chook-chook,
Yeah, come here take a look
Seep-seep, beep-beep-beap-beat,
Thrush pop music's all about repeat.
Chuff-chuff, chuffa-chuff-chuff-chuff,
Come and have a go, then, hey, hot stuff,
Chuff-chuff, chuffa-chuff-chuff-chuff,
If you think you're hard enough.
So songs must be song,
Things must be done,
Beak must find snail,
Male seeking female.
Sing, sing, all day, so bright,
Then all of the night, alright!
Constant making phrase and riffs,
Praise in fourths, and then in fifths,
Making sweetest melodies
And soft, saddest elegies,
All joy in repetition,
Sweet or clickety-clack ignition,
To show off, fight, and inspire,
Or rapid sound of gunfire,
To protect, and rebel,
To attract or repel,
Projecting and expecting
And endlessly creating,
In brain and breast and throat to trust,
Because I must, I must, I must.
Song thrush
So then, while topics in the past about birds in general and on imitation of birds, it’s time to sing your hearts out with nominations of songs about and featuring these special birds. This week’s aural ornithologist is, I’m delighted to say, the superb Severin! Place songs in comments below for deadline this coming Monday at 11pm UK time, for playlists published next week.
British cellist Beatrice Harrison plays to elicit a response from nightingales in Surrey, 1924, for one of the BBC’s first live outside broadcasts, but was the bird response real or faked? Another later recording included not only the birdsong, but also the sound of World War II bombers going overhead
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