Sonnet III To a Nightingale

In "To a Nightingale" Charlotte Smith discusses her melancholy state to a nightingale. I feel that Smith feels connected to the nightingale. Her poetry is inspired by her sadness similar to the song of a nightingale. Although she feels connected through emotion, she questions the meaning behind the nightingale’s gloomy song. “ What mean the sounds that swell thy little breast, when still at dewy eve though leavest thy nest, thus the listening night to sing thy fate”.  Smith wonders what brought on the nightingales sadness. She does not know what the nightingales “tale of tender woe” is however, she understands what it is like to sing a sad song (or in her case a poem) to nothing but the “listening night”.  Through this connection Smith realizes that she is actually envious of the nightingale. She ends the sonnet with a couplet expressing her envy “ Ah! Songstress sad! That such my lot might be, To sigh and sing at liberty-like thee!” Smith is not envious of it’s suffering, but rather its ability to express that suffering freely.