Point of View

Like many poems in the first person, the speaker also uses some second person address, meaning he is speaking directly to another person. In this case, he switches into the second person during the repeated refrain. During the first and third stanzas, he speaks only in the first person. When he talks about the nightingale, he uses the third person, as though he is describing something he sees (or in this case, hears) to someone else or to himself. In the refrain, however, he switches to the direct second person, addressing Philomela directly. He speaks to her using the thou/thee/thy pronoun set, the second-person pronoun set that indicates intimacy.

In this way, the poem’s perspective allows it to shift back and forth in how the speaker relates to Philomela. At times, he is actively engaged in a conversation with her, speaking directly...