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SONG CHALLENGE WINNER!
The Song Challenge: In Challenge 18, Eluned said "The woods would be silent indeed if only the best birds
sang." Bradypus suggested this quote as a Challenge! idea. So,
what song can you Challenge!rs write with that quote as the premise?
The Nightingale by Kelida
(To the meter and rhyme of the poem "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes (1906, 1913), that was sung as a song on a Loreena McKennitt
album that I can't recall the name of right now.)
The wood had a silence in the evening through which one birdsong rang;
The moon was rising in the distance, while only one bird sang;
The rest of the forest was quiet, respectful of the sound,
And the nightingale was singing--
Singing--singing--
The nightingale was singing for all who gather'd 'round.
The song was clear as a mountain spring, as strong as an ancient tree;
As wild as the untamed forest, the bird seemed forever free;
With a voice the was part of the dusk, the nightingale sang for the sky--
She sang for her love of the evening,
Her voice was part of the evening,
She sang in the glowing evening, with a lovely but fleeting cry.
Over and over she warbled and sang from her lofty perch;
The tune of the song took a mournful turn, a sign of deep-down hurts.
She whistled a tune for her pain then, and who should have heard her cry,
But the early evening hunter,
The music-killing hunter,
Hunting for doves in the dusk, the man for whom she'd die.
And out of the deep wood shadows, a shot rang out in the night,
The nightingale's song ended, her life went out like a light.
One last long note came from the lungs, a mournful sound indeed,
For the nightingale's life was ended,
Her song was finally ended--
Her song was finally ended, for the best of birds was dead.