"Sonnet III: To A Nightingale" (and all Songstresses)

In this sonnet, Charlotte Smith is intimately identifying herself with the Nightingale. In the first two stanzas, she contemplates what could be the cause of the bird’s sad state and attempts to translate its song as any poet would. The final 6 lines are the most important, for this is where she questions if the Nightingale’s sorrow may come from the same sources as her own. In Smith’s “Sonnet I” she expresses the sources of her pain are “mourning friendship, or unhappy love” (Line 12), this is again repeated here in this sonnet when she asks the Nightingale if it has been wronged by friends or is suffering from disastrous love. She is attempting to establish an intimate and meaningful connection with the bird as if she is hoping they are more similar than appearances would suggest and that they can understand each other. The final two lines read “Ah! Songstress sad! That such my lot might be, to sigh and sing at liberty—like thee!” The imperative word here is “songstress” for the Oxford English Dictionary defines songstress as: a) A female singer; a poetess. And b) A female singing-bird. Smith used this word as the key to ultimately fuse her identity with that of the Nightingale, for they are both sad songstresses. The Nightingale can turn sorrow into song, and she can turn sorrow into poetry. Therefore, they both suffer in life and suffer more through their abilities to produce art, and such is the lot of a songstress.

Recommended External Links:

1) Nightingale Song
2) Evanescence - My Immortal

Both of these songs are very melancholy and resemble each other very closely. I recommend listening to them together as well, at some points the similarities in sound and pitch are cool.