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<title type=“main“>”To the Nightingale”</title> | |
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<persName type=“lccn“ key=“n80056864“>Winchilsea, <forename>Anne</forename> Kingsmill | |
<surname>Finch</surname>, Countess of, 1661-1720</persName> | |
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<editor> | |
<persName type=“orcid“ key=“0000-0002-7400-4093“>Tonya Howe</persName> | |
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<name>Students of Marymount University</name> | |
<name>James West</name> | |
<name>Amy Ridderhof</name> | |
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<title>”To the Nightingale”</title> | |
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<persName>Winchilsea, Anne Kingsmill Finch, Countess of, 1661-1720</persName> | |
</author> | |
<title type=“marc245a“>Poems on Several Occasions…</title> | |
<title type=“marc245c“>Written by the Right Honourable Anne, countess of | |
Winchelsea.</title> | |
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<publisher>Printed by J[ohn] B[arber]</publisher> | |
<publisher>sold by W. Taylor [etc.]</publisher> | |
<date when=“1714“>1714</date> | |
<extent>4 p.l., 390 p. 19 cm. <idno type=“lcc“>PR3765.W57 A7 | |
1714</idno> | |
</extent> | |
<note>This book first appeared in 1713 undert the imprints of John Barber and | |
John Morphew, and there seem to be three different 1713 printings of this | |
text–each 1713 printing includes slight variations of the authorship | |
statement on the title page–from the anonymous “written by a Lady” to a | |
full statement of authorship by “Anne Finch, Countess of Winchelsea.” This | |
digital edition uses the 1714 printing by Barber, housed in the Library of | |
Congress. This 1714 printing is a reissue of the 1713 editions with a new | |
title page. All page images are sourced from the Library of Congress.</note> | |
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<date when=“1713“>1713</date> | |
<extent>[8],390p. ; 8°</extent> | |
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<imprint> | |
<pubPlace>Ann Arbor, MI</pubPlace> | |
<publisher>University of Michigan Library</publisher> | |
<date when=“4-2009“>2009 April</date> | |
<extent type=“online“>http://name.umdl.umich.edu/004860039.0001.000</extent> | |
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<biblScope>pp 200-202</biblScope> | |
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century. This project is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and | |
developed by faculty at The University of Virginia and Marymount University. </p></projectDesc> | |
<editorialDecl> | |
<interpretation><p>Research informing these annotations draws on publicly-accessible | |
resources, with links provided where possible. Annotations have also included common | |
knowledge, defined as information that can be found in multiple reliable sources. If | |
you notice an error in these annotations, please contact | |
lic.open.anthology@gmail.com. </p></interpretation> | |
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<front> | |
<titlePage> | |
<pb n=“[titlepage]“ facs=“images/FN-TP-1714.jpg“/> | |
<titlePart>POEMS <lb/></titlePart> | |
<titlePart>ON<lb/> Several Occasions, <hi rend=“italic“>viz.</hi>.<lb/></titlePart> | |
<p>[…]</p> | |
<titlePart><rs content=“#finch“><ref target=“#finch“ xml:id=“finchA“>Written by the Right Honorable <hi | |
rend=“italic“>ANNE</hi>,<lb/> Countess of <hi rend=“italic“ | |
>Winchelsea</hi></ref></rs>.<lb/></titlePart> | |
<docImprint> | |
<pubPlace><placeName type=“tgn“ key=“7011781“>LONDON</placeName></pubPlace>: <lb/> | |
Printed by <publisher><hi rend=“italic“>J. B.</hi></publisher> and sold by | |
<publisher><hi rend=“italic“>W. Taylor</hi></publisher> | |
<pubPlace>at the <hi rend=“italic“>Ship</hi><lb/> in <hi rend=“italic“ | |
>Paternoster-Row</hi></pubPlace>, and <publisher><hi rend=“italic“>Jonas | |
Browne</hi></publisher> | |
<pubPlace>at the <lb/><hi rend=“italic“>Black Swan </hi> without <hi rend=“italic“ | |
>Temple-bar</hi></pubPlace>. <docDate>1714</docDate>. <lb/> | |
</docImprint> | |
</titlePage> | |
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<body> | |
<div type=“poem“> | |
<pb n=“200“ facs=“images/FN-200.jpg“/> | |
<head type=“title“><hi rend=“italic“>To the </hi><ref target=“#nightingale“ | |
xml:id=“nightingaleA“><rs content=“#nightingale“>NIGHTINGALE</rs></ref>.</head> | |
<lg type=“rhymed couplets“> | |
<l n=“1“>EXert thy Voice, Sweet Harbinger of Spring</l> | |
<l n=“2“ rend=“indent“>This Moment is thy Time to Sing,</l> | |
<l n=“3“ rend=“indent“>This Moment I attend to Praise,</l> | |
<l n=“4“>And <ref target=“#numbers“ xml:id=“numbersA“>set my Numbers</ref> to thy | |
<ref target=“#layes“ xml:id=“layesA“><rs content=“#layes“>Layes</rs></ref>.</l> | |
<l n=“5“ rend=“indent“>Free as thine shall be my Song;</l> | |
<l n=“6“ rend=“indent“>As thy Musick, short, or long.</l> | |
<l n=“7“>Poets, wild as thee, were born,</l> | |
<pb facs=“images/FN-201.jpg“/> | |
<l n=“8“ rend=“indent“>Pleasing best when unconfin’d,</l> | |
<l n=“9“ rend=“indent“>When to Please is least design’d,</l> | |
<l n=“10“>Soothing but their Cares to rest;</l> | |
<l n=“11“ rend=“indent“>Cares do still their Thoughts molest,</l> | |
<l n=“12“ rend=“indent“>And still th’unhappy Poet’s Breast,</l> | |
<l n=“13“>Like thine, when best he sings, is plac’d against a Thorn. </l> | |
<l n=“14“>She begins, Let all be still!</l> | |
<l n=“15“ rend=“indent“><ref target=“#muse“ xml:id=“museA“><rs content=“#muse“>Muse</rs></ref>, thy Promise | |
now fulfill!</l> | |
<l n=“16“>Sweet, oh! sweet, still sweeter yet</l> | |
<l n=“17“>Can thy Words such Accents fit,</l> | |
<l n=“18“>Canst thou Syllables refine, </l> | |
<l n=“19“>Melt a Sense that shall retain</l> | |
<l n=“20“>Still some Spirit of the Brain,</l> | |
<l n=“21“>Till with Sounds like these it join.</l> | |
<l n=“22“ rend=“indent“>‘Twill not be ! then change thy Note; </l> | |
<l n=“23“ rend=“indent“>Let <ref target=“#division“ xml:id=“divisionA“><rs content=“#division“>Division</rs></ref> | |
shake thy Throat.</l> | |
<l n=“24“>Hark! Division now she tries;</l> | |
<l n=“25“>Yet as far the Muse outflies </l> | |
<pb facs=“images/FN-202.jpg“/> | |
<l n=“26“ rend=“indent“>Cease then, prithee, cease thy Tune;</l> | |
<l n=“27“ rend=“indent“>Trifler, wilt thou sing till <hi rend=“italic“>June?</hi></l> | |
<l n=“28“>Till thy Bus’ness all lies waste,</l> | |
<l n=“29“>And the Time of Building’s past !</l> | |
<l n=“30“ rend=“indent“>Thus we Poets that have Speech,</l> | |
<l n=“31“>Unlike what thy Forests teach,</l> | |
<l n=“32“ rend=“indent“>If a fluent Vein be shown</l> | |
<l n=“33“ rend=“indent“>That’s transcendent to our own,</l> | |
<l n=“34“>Criticize, reform, or preach,</l> | |
<l n=“35“>Or censure what we cannot reach. </l> | |
</lg> | |
</div> | |
</body> | |
<back> | |
<div type=“annotations“> | |
<head>Annotations</head> | |
<note xml:id=“finch“ type=“editorial“ resp=“JW“><p><graphic | |
url=“https://collectionimages.npg.org.uk/large/mw06861/Anne-Finch-Countess-of-Winchilsea.jpg“ | |
style=“float:right“ width=“300“/> Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, | |
was born in April 1661 to Anne Haselwood and Sir William Kingsmill. At age | |
twenty-one she was appointed maid of honor to <ref | |
target=“https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-of-Modena“>Mary Modena</ref>, | |
the wife of the Duke of York, in the Court of Charles II. During her time in the | |
Court, <ref target=“https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/anne-finch“>Anne | |
Kingsmill</ref> was courted by and eventually married to Colonel Heneage Finch. | |
In 1689, after a shift in political power, the Finches faced monetary problems and | |
moved several times, eventually settling in <placeName type=“tgn“ key=“7027563“ | |
>Eastwell</placeName> with their nephew.</p> | |
<p>As a woman writer in the <ref | |
target=“https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/augustan-age“ | |
>Augustan era</ref>, Finch was also out of place. <ref | |
target=“https://books.google.com/books?id=-JldIaiQvkEC“>Barbara McGovern’s 2002 | |
critical biography of Finch</ref> explores these displacements both in her life | |
and her poetry. Finch struggled, as McGovern notes, to define her poetic identity | |
in an era when women were excluded from the conditions that would allow them to | |
cultivate their minds or their voices. The poet was seen as male, and publishing | |
poetry, a masculine, public activity; for a woman to do so was, in the Augustan | |
period, risque and licentious (See Katherine Rogers’ essay, “Anne Finch, Countess | |
of Winchelsea: An Augustan Woman Writer,” in <ref | |
target=“https://books.google.com/books?id=pE-gBAAAQBAJ“>Pacheco 227</ref>); | |
Finch had to negotiate these competing cultural rules in her poetry. </p> | |
<p>Finch’s | |
poetry from 1701-1714 was wide ranging. She wrote on subjects typically allowed to | |
be feminine, like her love for her husband, but she also wrote about public and | |
political issues, like the succession of power in London. In 1701, Finch | |
anonymously published <hi rend=“italic“>”Upon the Death of King James the | |
Second”</hi>. Poems such as <ref | |
target=“http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o4784-w0160.shtml“>”The | |
Spleen”</ref>and <ref | |
target=“http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o4784-w0020.shtml“>”All is | |
Vanity”</ref> exemplify the idea of faith despite tribulation, a subject she | |
explored often. Prior to the 1713 publication of <hi rend=“italic“>Miscellany | |
Poems on Several Occasions</hi>, Finch circulated private manuscripts of her | |
poems and gained a favorable literary reputation. For more information on women | |
writers and manuscript circulation, see George Justice’s introduction to <ref | |
target=“https://books.google.com/books?id=2v_RciKgeuAC“><hi rend=“italic“ | |
>Women’s Writing and the Circulation of Ideas: Manuscript Publication in | |
England, 1550-1800</hi></ref> (2002) or Margaret Ezell’s <ref | |
target=“https://books.google.com/books?id=45lAXaDsjz0C“ | |
><hi rend=“italic“>Social Authorship and the Advent of Print</hi></ref> | |
(1999).</p> | |
<p><ref target=“https://books.google.com/books?id=pE-gBAAAQBAJ“>Rogers | |
emphasizes Finch’s Augustan roots, highlighting her use of form</ref> as well | |
as her love poetry, satirical prose, and ideas on the relationship between man and | |
nature (225). According to Rogers, Finch became one of the few female authors in | |
the Augustan era to successfully master the masculine rules of the literary | |
tradition. During the early modern period, women “frequently found themselves | |
denied opportunities for publication and serious public reception, or had their | |
writings denigrated and trivialized by a patriarchal literary world” (<ref | |
target=“https://books.google.com/books?id=-JldIaiQvkEC“>McGovern 2</ref>)–as | |
detailed in Finch’s poem “The Introduction,” which remained unpublished during her | |
lifetime. Finch was able to make her voice heard by working within the masculine | |
restraints of Augustan form.</p> | |
<p>Finch died on August 5, 1720. According to the <hi | |
rend=“italic“><ref url=“https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/anne-finch“ | |
>National Poetry Foundation</ref></hi> the first recognized modern edition | |
of her work was released in 1903. Since the advent of feminist recovery criticism | |
in the 1970s and 1980s, Anne Finch has gained critical acclaim; she is now | |
regarded as one of the most important English women writers of the 18th century. | |
The image to the right shows a <ref | |
target=“https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw06861“>miniature | |
watercolor portrait of Anne Finch by Peter Cross</ref>, housed in the National | |
Portrait Gallery, London.<ptr target=“#finchA“/></p></note> | |
<note xml:id=“nightingale“ type=“editorial“ resp=“TH“> | |
<p><graphic | |
url=“https://www.rspb.org.uk/globalassets/images/birds-and-wildlife/bird-species-illustrations/nightingale_1200x675.jpg“ | |
style=“float:right“ width=“300“/>The nightingale is a small bird native to | |
Europe and Asia, with a population in the United Kingdom as well as Africa. It is | |
known for its beautiful, complex song, characterized by <ref | |
target=“https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/nightingale“ | |
>”a fast succession of high, low and rich notes that few other species can | |
match,”</ref> and for that reason has long been associated with poets and | |
poetry, <ref | |
target=“http://www.edwardhirsch.com/prose/to-a-nightingale-introduction/“>as | |
poet Edward Hirsch notes in his introduction to <hi rend=“italic“>To a | |
Nightingale: Poems from Sappho to Borges</hi></ref>. Often, the nightingale | |
alludes to the classical myth of the <ref target=“http://vos.ucsb.edu/myth.asp“ | |
>rape of Philomela</ref>, whose violation is ostensibly recompensed with an | |
unearthly beautiful song. While the nightingale is frequently invoked in lyric | |
poetry as a feminized muse for the masculine poet to draw inspiration from, <ref | |
target=“https://www.jstor.org/stable/450859“>as Charles Hinnant notes in “Song | |
and Speech in Anne Finch’s ‘To the Nightingale,'”</ref> Finch recasts the bird | |
as an idealized muse for all poets, regardless of gender (504). This poem, is a | |
significant attempt on Finch’s part “to master a recurrent problem for | |
the…female poet: how to participate in a discourse in which the poet is defined | |
as a masculine subject” (503). <ref target=“https://youtu.be/teP1pE6S7tQ“>This | |
video</ref> allows you to hear a nightingale singing. The image to the right, | |
via RSPB, shows the nightingale, luscinia megarhynchos. <ptr | |
target=“#nightingaleA“/></p></note> | |
<note xml:id=“division“ type=“editorial“ resp=“JW“><p>According to the <ref | |
target=“https://www.britannica.com/art/ornamentation-music“><hi rend=“italic“ | |
>Encyclopedia Britannica</hi> entry on ornamentation</ref>, division refers | |
to a technique, popular in early modern music theory, characterized by dividing | |
longer notes into a series of shorter note groupings. This is an early form of | |
improvisation. For more information, please see “meter and time signatures” in the | |
<ref target=“ http://openmusictheory.com/meter.html“>Open Music Theory</ref> | |
textbook. <ptr target=“#divisionA“/></p></note> | |
<note xml:id=“muse“ type=“editorial“ resp=“JW“><p>According to <ref | |
target=“http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DM%3Aentry+group%3D31%3Aentry%3Dmusae-bio-1“ | |
><hi rend=“italic“>A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and | |
Mythology</hi></ref>, the Muses are “inspiring goddesses of song” who | |
“presid[e] over the different kinds of poetry, and over the arts and sciences.” In | |
this poem, Finch positions the nightingale as her muse and rival. <ptr | |
target=“#museA“/></p></note> | |
<note xml:id=“layes“ type=“editiorial“ resp=“JW“><p>According to the <ref | |
target=“ https://www.britannica.com/art/lay“><hi rend=“italic“> Encyclopedia | |
Britanica</hi></ref> , a “Lay” refers to a song or story in song. Finch in | |
this instance is seeking to create a poem that mirrors the song of the | |
Nightingale. <ptr target=“#layesA“/></p></note> | |
<note xml:id=“numbers“ type=“editorial“ resp=“TH“><p>”Numbers” refers to the metrical | |
quality of poetic verse; it also <ref | |
target=“https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/metonymy“ | |
>metonymically</ref> signifies poetry in general. In <ref | |
target=“https://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/arbuthnot.html“>Alexander | |
Pope’s “Epistle to Arbuthnot,”</ref> he says that he “lisp’d in numbers, for | |
the numbers came” (128), suggesting that he spoke in poetic form even as a child. | |
Poetry is associated with music because of the metrical quality of both. Finch’s | |
use of the word “set” in this line emphasizes musicality, specifically the setting | |
of words to music (see OED “set” v1, 73.a). <ptr target=“#numbersA“/></p></note> | |
</div> | |
</back> | |
<tooltip_notes> | |
<div class=“tooltip_templates“> | |
<span link=“#“ id=“#finch“ type=“editorial“ resp=“JW“><p><graphic | |
url=“https://collectionimages.npg.org.uk/large/mw06861/Anne-Finch-Countess-of-Winchilsea.jpg“ | |
style=“float:right“ width=“300“/> Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, | |
was born in April 1661 to Anne Haselwood and Sir William Kingsmill. At age | |
twenty-one she was appointed maid of honor to <a | |
href=“https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-of-Modena“>Mary Modena</a>, | |
the wife of the Duke of York, in the Court of Charles II. During her time in the | |
Court, <a href=“https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/anne-finch“>Anne | |
Kingsmill</a> was courted by and eventually married to Colonel Heneage Finch. | |
In 1689, after a shift in political power, the Finches faced monetary problems and | |
moved several times, eventually settling in <placeName type=“tgn“ key=“7027563“ | |
>Eastwell</placeName> with their nephew.</p> | |
<p>As a woman writer in the <a | |
href=“https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/augustan-age“ | |
>Augustan era</a>, Finch was also out of place. <a | |
href=“https://books.google.com/books?id=-JldIaiQvkEC“>Barbara McGovern’s 2002 | |
critical biography of Finch</a> explores these displacements both in her life | |
and her poetry. Finch struggled, as McGovern notes, to define her poetic identity | |
in an era when women were excluded from the conditions that would allow them to | |
cultivate their minds or their voices. The poet was seen as male, and publishing | |
poetry, a masculine, public activity; for a woman to do so was, in the Augustan | |
period, risque and licentious (See Katherine Rogers’ essay, “Anne Finch, Countess | |
of Winchelsea: An Augustan Woman Writer,” in <a | |
href=“https://books.google.com/books?id=pE-gBAAAQBAJ“>Pacheco 227</a>); | |
Finch had to negotiate these competing cultural rules in her poetry. </p> | |
<p>Finch’s | |
poetry from 1701-1714 was wide ranging. She wrote on subjects typically allowed to | |
be feminine, like her love for her husband, but she also wrote about public and | |
political issues, like the succession of power in London. In 1701, Finch | |
anonymously published <hi rend=“italic“>”Upon the Death of King James the | |
Second”</hi>. Poems such as <a | |
href=“http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o4784-w0160.shtml“>”The | |
Spleen”</a>and <a | |
href=“http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o4784-w0020.shtml“>”All is | |
Vanity”</a> exemplify the idea of faith despite tribulation, a subject she | |
explored often. Prior to the 1713 publication of <hi rend=“italic“>Miscellany | |
Poems on Several Occasions</hi>, Finch circulated private manuscripts of her | |
poems and gained a favorable literary reputation. For more information on women | |
writers and manuscript circulation, see George Justice’s introduction to <a | |
href=“https://books.google.com/books?id=2v_RciKgeuAC“><hi rend=“italic“ | |
>Women’s Writing and the Circulation of Ideas: Manuscript Publication in | |
England, 1550-1800</hi></a> (2002) or Margaret Ezell’s <a | |
href=“https://books.google.com/books?id=45lAXaDsjz0C“ | |
><hi rend=“italic“>Social Authorship and the Advent of Print</hi></a> | |
(1999).</p> | |
<p><a href=“https://books.google.com/books?id=pE-gBAAAQBAJ“>Rogers | |
emphasizes Finch’s Augustan roots, highlighting her use of form</a> as well | |
as her love poetry, satirical prose, and ideas on the relationship between man and | |
nature (225). According to Rogers, Finch became one of the few female authors in | |
the Augustan era to successfully master the masculine rules of the literary | |
tradition. During the early modern period, women “frequently found themselves | |
denied opportunities for publication and serious public reception, or had their | |
writings denigrated and trivialized by a patriarchal literary world” (<a | |
href=“https://books.google.com/books?id=-JldIaiQvkEC“>McGovern 2</a>)–as | |
detailed in Finch’s poem “The Introduction,” which remained unpublished during her | |
lifetime. Finch was able to make her voice heard by working within the masculine | |
restraints of Augustan form.</p> | |
<p>Finch died on August 5, 1720. According to the <hi | |
rend=“italic“><a url=“https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/anne-finch“ | |
>National Poetry Foundation</a></hi> the first recognized modern edition | |
of her work was released in 1903. Since the advent of feminist recovery criticism | |
in the 1970s and 1980s, Anne Finch has gained critical acclaim; she is now | |
regarded as one of the most important English women writers of the 18th century. | |
The image to the right shows a <a | |
href=“https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw06861“>miniature | |
watercolor portrait of Anne Finch by Peter Cross</a>, housed in the National | |
Portrait Gallery, London.<ptr target=“#finchA“/></p></span> | |
<span link=“#“ id=“#nightingale“ type=“editorial“ resp=“TH“> | |
<p><graphic | |
url=“https://www.rspb.org.uk/globalassets/images/birds-and-wildlife/bird-species-illustrations/nightingale_1200x675.jpg“ | |
style=“float:right“ width=“300“/>The nightingale is a small bird native to | |
Europe and Asia, with a population in the United Kingdom as well as Africa. It is | |
known for its beautiful, complex song, characterized by <a | |
href=“https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/nightingale“ | |
>”a fast succession of high, low and rich notes that few other species can | |
match,”</a> and for that reason has long been associated with poets and | |
poetry, <a | |
href=“http://www.edwardhirsch.com/prose/to-a-nightingale-introduction/“>as | |
poet Edward Hirsch notes in his introduction to <hi rend=“italic“>To a | |
Nightingale: Poems from Sappho to Borges</hi></a>. Often, the nightingale | |
alludes to the classical myth of the <a href=“http://vos.ucsb.edu/myth.asp“ | |
>rape of Philomela</a>, whose violation is ostensibly recompensed with an | |
unearthly beautiful song. While the nightingale is frequently invoked in lyric | |
poetry as a feminized muse for the masculine poet to draw inspiration from, <a | |
href=“https://www.jstor.org/stable/450859“>as Charles Hinnant notes in “Song | |
and Speech in Anne Finch’s ‘To the Nightingale,'”</a> Finch recasts the bird | |
as an idealized muse for all poets, regardless of gender (504). This poem, is a | |
significant attempt on Finch’s part “to master a recurrent problem for | |
the…female poet: how to participate in a discourse in which the poet is defined | |
as a masculine subject” (503). <a href=“https://youtu.be/teP1pE6S7tQ“>This | |
video</a> allows you to hear a nightingale singing. The image to the right, | |
via RSPB, shows the nightingale, luscinia megarhynchos. <ptr | |
target=“#nightingaleA“/></p></span> | |
<span link=“#“ id=“#division“ type=“editorial“ resp=“JW“><p>According to the <a | |
href=“https://www.britannica.com/art/ornamentation-music“><hi rend=“italic“ | |
>Encyclopedia Britannica</hi> entry on ornamentation</a>, division refers | |
to a technique, popular in early modern music theory, characterized by dividing | |
longer notes into a series of shorter note groupings. This is an early form of | |
improvisation. For more information, please see “meter and time signatures” in the | |
<a href=“ http://openmusictheory.com/meter.html“>Open Music Theory</a> | |
textbook. <ptr target=“#divisionA“/></p></span> | |
<span link=“#“ id=“#muse“ type=“editorial“ resp=“JW“><p>According to <a | |
href=“http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DM%3Aentry+group%3D31%3Aentry%3Dmusae-bio-1“ | |
><hi rend=“italic“>A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and | |
Mythology</hi></a>, the Muses are “inspiring goddesses of song” who | |
“presid[e] over the different kinds of poetry, and over the arts and sciences.” In | |
this poem, Finch positions the nightingale as her muse and rival. <ptr | |
target=“#museA“/></p></span> | |
<span link=“#“ id=“#layes“ type=“editiorial“ resp=“JW“><p>According to the <a | |
href=“ https://www.britannica.com/art/lay“><hi rend=“italic“> Encyclopedia | |
Britanica</hi></a> , a “Lay” refers to a song or story in song. Finch in | |
this instance is seeking to create a poem that mirrors the song of the | |
Nightingale. <ptr target=“#layesA“/></p></span> | |
<span link=“#“ id=“#numbers“ type=“editorial“ resp=“TH“><p>”Numbers” refers to the metrical | |
quality of poetic verse; it also <a | |
href=“https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/metonymy“ | |
>metonymically</a> signifies poetry in general. In <a | |
href=“https://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/arbuthnot.html“>Alexander | |
Pope’s “Epistle to Arbuthnot,”</a> he says that he “lisp’d in numbers, for | |
the numbers came” (128), suggesting that he spoke in poetic form even as a child. | |
Poetry is associated with music because of the metrical quality of both. Finch’s | |
use of the word “set” in this line emphasizes musicality, specifically the setting | |
of words to music (see OED “set” v1, 73.a). <ptr target=“#numbersA“/></p></span> | |
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