368 
NIGHTINGALE. Ctass Il, 
In another place he ityles it the folemu bird, 
and again {peaks of it, 
- As the wakeful bird 
Sings darkling, and in fhadieft covert hid, 
Tunes her nocturnal note. 
~The reader muft excufe afew more quotations 
from the fame poet, on the fame fubject; the firft 
defcribes the approach of evening, and the retiring 
of all animals to their repofe. 
Silence accompanied ; for beaft and bird, 
They to their graffy couch, thefe to their nefts 
Were flunk ; all but the wakeful zightingale, 
She all night long her amorous defcant fung. 
When Eve pafied the irkfome night preceding 
her fall, fhe, in a dream, imagines herfelf thus re- 
proached with lofing the beauties of the night By 
indulging too long a repofe: 
Why fleep’it thou, Eve? now is the pleafant time, 
The cool, the filent, fave where filence yields 
To the night-warbling bird, that now awake — 
Tunes fweeteft his love-labor’d fong. 
The fame birds fing their nuptial fone, and 
lull them to reft. How rapturous are the follow- 
ing lines! how expreffive of the delicate fenfibility 
of our Milton’s tender ideas ! 
The Earth 
Gave fign of gratulation, and each hill ; 
Joyous the birds; freth gales and gentle airs 
Whifper’d 
