Analysis of To The Nightingale

Anne Kingsmill Finch

1661   –    · 1720 · Westminster


Exert thy Voice, sweet Harbinger of Spring!
    This Moment is thy Time to sing,
    This Moment I attend to Praise,
And set my Numbers to thy Layes.
    Free as thine shall be my Song;
    As thy Musick, short, or long.

Poets, wild as thee, were born,
    Pleasing best when unconfin'd,
    When to Please is least design'd,
Soothing but their Cares to rest;
    Cares do still their Thoughts molest,
    And still th' unhappy Poet's Breast,
Like thine, when best he sings, is plac'd against a Thorn.

She begins, Let all be still!
    Muse, thy Promise now fulfill!
Sweet, oh! sweet, still sweeter yet
Can thy Words such Accents fit,
Canst thou Syllables refine,
Melt a Sense that shall retain
Still some Spirit of the Brain,
Till with Sounds like these it join.
    'Twill not be! then change thy Note;
    Let division shake thy Throat.
Hark! Division now she tries;
Yet as far the Muse outflies.

Cease then, prithee, cease thy Tune;
    Trifler, wilt thou sing till June?
Till thy Bus'ness all lies waste,
And the Time of Building's past!
    Thus we Poets that have Speech,
Unlike what thy Forests teach,
    If a fluent Vein be shown
    That's transcendant to our own,
Criticize, reform, or preach,
Or censure what we cannot reach.


Scheme AABBCC DEEFFFD GGXXXHHXIIXB JJXXKKLLKK
Poetic Form
Metre 0111110011 11011111 11010111 01110111 1111111 1110111 1011101 101101 1111101 1011111 1111101 0111010101 111111110101 1011111 1110101 1111101 1111101 1110001 1011101 1110101 1111111 1111111 1010111 1010111 111011 111111 111111 1111111 0011101 1110111 0111101 1010111 111101 100111 11011101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,222
Words 212
Sentences 16
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 7, 12, 10
Lines Amount 35
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 227
Words per stanza (avg) 53
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 22, 2023

1:05 min read
172

Anne Kingsmill Finch

Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (née Kingsmill), was an English poet and courtier. Finch's works often express a desire for respect as a female poet, lamenting her difficult position as a woman in the literary establishment and the court, while writing of "political ideology, religious orientation, and aesthetic sensibility". Her works also allude to other female authors of the time, such as Aphra Behn and Katherine Phillips. Through her commentary on the mental and spiritual equality of the genders and the importance of women fulfilling their potential as a moral duty to themselves and to society, she is regarded as one of the integral female poets of the Restoration Era. Finch died in Westminster in 1720 and was buried at her home at Eastwell, Kent.  more…

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