Anne Finch's "At the Nightingale" and Samuel Coleridge's similarly titled poem both display a pastoral appreciation of nature. The two poems are both conversation poems. This was a particularly popular form during the Romantic era and used conversational language to discuss higher themes of nature and morality. The protagonists address the nightingale and use it as a symbol to illustrate the human soul. Despite their similarity in theme, the two poems differ greatly in content. Finch's narrator sees the bird as a free soul from its own lack of human inspiration, while Coleridge celebrates the human form. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The poems of Finch and Coleridge show similarities and differences in their speaker, particularly in the way the bird is addressed. Both speakers display their appreciation for nature and the joy it brings. The speaker of Finch's poem gives the Nightingale's identity through an important role in the changing of the seasons, exhorting the Nightingale to: "[exercise] Thy Voice, Sweet Harbinger of Spring!" ". The use of the capital letter “Harbinger” signals the status of the nightingale: it announces the start of another season. It is also particularly poignant that the season is spring, as the song indicates a new beginning, with the exclamation point reflecting the vibrancy of the spring months. Additionally, Finch seems to personify the nightingale by referring to its bird call as a "voice", something one would generally assume to be human. This further elevates the status of the bird and perhaps also presents a sense of envy on the part of the speaker. They view the nightingale as free from human inspiration and wish to be able to embody such traits themselves. Therefore, Finch's speaker shows his respect for the bird by elevating it from animal to human and assigning it this important task as the herald of spring. In Coleridge's poem, he also gives the nightingale an ethereal label, "Minstrel of the Moon", implying that the bird has power over the "full-orb queen". His construction of the nightingale seems to encompass the sublime; he was elevated out of everyday animal life toward a higher cause, as if he controlled some aspect of nature. Coleridge uses alliteration to emphasize the nightingale's label, attributing poetic importance to the animal. Like Finch, Coleridge presents an anthropomorphic image, presenting the nightingale as a “minstrel,” an old-fashioned medieval singer or musician. This suggests that the nightingale is almost serenading the natural world, placing it in a position of power. It is also interesting to consider the idea of ​​a musician within a conversational poem. Despite this title, only the speaker proposes the conversation. The nightingale is unable to express his own words, but he is given identity and importance through the way the speaker observes him and the way Coleridge describes him. Throughout both poems, Coleridge and Finch describe the nightingale and its song as melancholic. Later in the poem, Coleridge's speaker "ceases to listen" to the song, discrediting any importance he previously attributed to the nightingale as a musician. Therefore, the identity of the nightingale is decided in each poem through how the speaker perceives him, raising interesting questions about the nature of perception and truth, a key topic of the Romantic period. In both poems, the typical pastoral symbol ofnightingale is used to present a comparison with human happiness. Finch focuses on the bird's happiness to further emphasize the poet's frustration: And always the unfortunate poet's breast, like yours, when he sings best, is placed against a thorn. Finch's speaker directly compares himself to the bird, comparing the "poet's breast" to that of the nightingale; It is interesting that the poet lacks academic inspiration but the problem appears in his chest. Perhaps this suggests that writing comes from the heart and not the mind. This also implies a bittersweet atmosphere, as the nightingale is free to sin but is subject to the sharp edge of a thorn, just as Finch is subject to criticism from his own society. Furthermore, this frustration within the poem is extremely relevant to Finch's own frustrations as a 17th century poet. She criticized Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, which openly undermines a woman's capacity for mind. This overtly suggests that Finch might have been the "unhappy poet", confined not only because of her lack of inspiration, but also because of the social conditions of her generation which assumed that women were incapable of writing or writing. art. This is almost ironic in a conversation poem, where the nightingale is used simply as a voice to illustrate the narrator's anxieties. Coleridge presents the opposite of Finch, placing humanity in a state of elevated happiness compared to the nightingale. It is interesting to consider the influence of Coleridge's love, which makes the nightingale's song a parody of its own sweetness: ...not so sweet as is her voice, My Sara- the best beloved of mankind! The personal pronoun “ma” indicates possessiveness over her beauty, while the hyphen acts as a poetic pause, as if Coleridge is temporarily distracted by her intense attraction. The typical values ​​of romantic poetry are to describe the joy of nature, but the speaker extends this to celebrate human life as well. Coleridge defines Sara as "the best beloved of mankind", elevating her above the rest of humanity. This perhaps suggests that only the almost ethereal voice can sound softer than the nightingale's voice. In terms of context, there is ambiguity around the female figure, even though she is named. Coleridge was married to Sara Fricker, but also fell in love with Sara Hutchinson, Wordsworth's future sister-in-law. This poem could therefore have two meanings: it could be either a sweet verse for his beloved wife, or a declaration of unrequited love, possible only through the safe enclosures of words. So far, the content and language of each poem has been changed. been examined. However, both poems also convey meaning through their structure and form. Finch divides his poem into four stanzas. It is perhaps a physical representation of the four seasons, which the content also reflects. The first stanza, which is said to represent spring, is full of joyful descriptors and expressions such as “sweet,” “praise,” and “song.” In comparison, the fourth stanza, which is said to represent winter, is incredibly melancholic and representative of the long nights and tumultuous weather of the past few months. Finch's structure could also have used these stanzas to balance the comparison of natural elements with humanity. The entire first stanza is dedicated to the nightingale, while the second is based on the speaker's frustration with the lack of imagination. This is emphasized by Finch's choice of rhyme scheme, which primarily features rhyming couplets. This could depict the nightingale and the poet side by side to further show the contrast between the free and the trapped. In comparison,.