The Nightingale and the Rose Q1
by bunPeiris

[Question 1]
In Oscar Wilde’s “The Nightingale and the Rose”, the student, referring to the songs of Nightingale says, “She has form’’, yet she has no “feelings”. He also says the nightingale does not “mean anything”, and also doubts whether her songs do “any practical good’’. Discuss.

Hints. [Support material for you to answer the question]
[1] Focus on following text in your anthology of OL  works of literature entitled, “Appreciation of Literary Texts”.
Quote
[i] “Here at last is a true lover,” said the Nightingale. “Night after night have I sung of him, though I knew him not; night after night have I told his story to the stars, and now I see him.” (Department of English, 2014, p. 20)

[ii] “Here, indeed is a true lover,” said the Nightingale. “What I sing of, he suffers: what is joy to me, to him is pain” (Department of English, 2014, p. 20)

[iii] “She has form,” he said to himself, as he walked away through the grove- “that cannot be denied to her; but has she got feeling? I am afraid not. In fact, she is like most artists; she is all style, without any sincerity. She would not sacrifice herself for others. She thinks merely of music, and everybody knows that the arts are selfish. Still, it must be admitted that she has some beautiful notes in her voice. What a pity it is that they do not mean anything, or do any practical good!” (Department of English, 2014, p. 24)

[2] Furthermore, bear in mind that Oscar Wilde seems to convey the idea to us, the lesser mortals, that true love calls for sacrifice, it is that the Nightingale that was love in blood and flesh in this fairy tale.

[3] The read the following text too and enjoy listening to Yanni’s haunting yet sizzling melody entitled Nightingale in You Tube.
This is, of course, from a secondary source, for you to enjoy and also to learn that among us are humans who wish we could understand the music of the birds. Most of would listen, at best, for a while and then forget birds chirping, but not Yanni. Being a musician, Yanni enjoyed the range of hi-frequency melodies produced by the Nightingale and thought, “What a pity that we couldn’t communicate, or speak each other’s language.” Linguistically, it is theorized that only humans own languages, all other creatures, at best, are endowed only with a system of signals as that of chirping by the birds. Most possibly, the nightingale’s songs too builds up only a system of signals, an invitation to a mate. But Oscar Wilde, in his fairy tale, would like the children to believe Nightingale sings of Human love to humans. Well, that’s the writer’s poetic license, his imagination running riots, That’s fine. The humanity needs imagination.

Quote Greek American composer musician Yanni. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfCca7M5r9A

“The next piece of music, believe it or not, was inspired by a nightingale. I often listen to nature because I learn balance by listening to nature. I remember few years ago I was in Venice, Italy, one of these birds kept coming by my window at every sunset and she proceeded to sing her song. And it was so beautiful, I was completely mesmerized by it. These birds have such a tremendous vocabulary and rhythms and melodies. And I thought, what a pity that we couldn’t communicate, or we couldn’t speak each other’s language. It wasn’t until many years later when I was introduced to the Chinese flute that I realized that this instrument, particularly in the higher registers, has a lot of tonal characteristic of the Nightingale. So I decided to write a song [rather compose a piece of music] using the Chinese flute. The song will begin with our Venezuelan friend, whom you met a little earlier in tonight, Pedro Eustache playing the Chinese flute. It’s called Nightingale and I like to dedicate to you. (Yanni, 2019)
Unquote Yanni

References

Department of English, N. S. (2014). G. C. E. Oridinary Level Appreciation of Literary Text. Colombo: The Educational Publication Department. Retrieved May 11, 2022

Yanni. (2019, March 09). Yanni – ”Nightingale”… The “Tribute” Concerts!… 1080p Digitally Remastered & Restored. Yanni – ”Nightingale”… The “Tribute” Concerts!… 1080p Digitally Remastered & Restored. Retrieved May 11, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfCca7M5r9A