John Milton on Nightingales

“Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day First heard before the shallow cuckoo's bill, Portend success in love.”

“Sweet bird that shunn'st the noise of folly, Most musical, most melancholy! Thee, chauntress, oft, the woods among, I woo, to hear thy even-song.”

“O nightingale, that on yon bloomy spray Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still; Thou with fresh hope the lover's heart dost fill While the jolly hours lead on propitious May.”