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  <title type=main>”To the Nightingale”</title>
  <author>
  <persName type=lccn key=n80056864>Winchilsea, <forename>Anne</forename> Kingsmill
  <surname>Finch</surname>, Countess of, 1661-1720</persName>
  </author>
  <editor>
  <persName type=orcid key=0000-0002-7400-4093>Tonya Howe</persName>
  </editor>
  <respStmt>
  <resp>Transcription, correction, editorial commentary, and markup</resp>
  <name>Students of Marymount University</name>
  <name>James West</name>
  <name>Amy Ridderhof</name>
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  <publisher>Literature in Context</publisher>
  <distributor>
  <orgName>Novels in Context</orgName>
  <address>
  <addrLine>Marymount University Department of Literature and Languages</addrLine>
  <addrLine>2807 N. Glebe Road</addrLine>
  <addrLine>Arlington, VA </addrLine>
  <addrLine>22207</addrLine>
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  <email>thowe@marymount.edu</email>
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  <availability status=free>
  <licence target=http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/>Published by
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  <textDesc>
  <constitution status=incomplete>This text is incomplete and reqiures further
  correction, annotation, and standardization.</constitution>
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  <date when=2018-06-05/>
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  <analytic>
  <title>”To the Nightingale”</title>
  </analytic>
  <monogr>
  <author>
  <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>
  <imprint>
  <pubPlace>
  <placeName type=tgn key=7011781>London</placeName>
  </pubPlace>
  <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>
  </imprint>
  <imprint>
  <pubPlace>
  <placeName type=tgn key=7011781>London</placeName>
  </pubPlace>
  <publisher>Printed by John Barber on Lambeth-Hill</publisher>
  <publisher>Sold by John Morphew near Stationer’s
  Hall</publisher>
  <date when=1713>1713</date>
  <extent>[8],390p. ; 8°</extent>
  </imprint>
  <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>
  </imprint>
  <biblScope>pp 200-202</biblScope>
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  which provides an accessible, curated, and marked-up selection of primary sources
  relevant to the study and the teaching of British and American literature of the 18th
  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>
  <normalization><p>Original spelling and capitalization is retained, though the long s has
  been silently modernized and ligatured forms are not encoded.</p></normalization>
  <hyphenation><p>Hyphenation has not been retained, except where necessary for the sense of
  the word.</p></hyphenation>
  <segmentation><p>Page breaks have been retained. Catchwords, signatures, and running
  headers have not.</p></segmentation>
  <correction><p>Materials have been transcribed from and checked against first editions,
  where possible. See the Sources section.</p></correction>
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  <bibl>Library of Congress Classification</bibl>
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  <taxonomy xml:id=tgn>
  <bibl>Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names</bibl>
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  <text>
  <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>
  </front>
  <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>
  </div>
  </tooltip_notes>
  </text>
  </TEI>