The Nightingale (Philip Sidney poem) Summary

“The Nightingale” is a two-stanza, 24 line poem based on book six of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The speaker addresses the mythical character Philomela, who has been turned into a nightingale after her rape by her brother-in-law. The speaker observes the nightingale singing out her woes, and uses this as a jumping-off point to complain that he suffers even more than she does because he is unable to express his pain.