# The Veery explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Henry van Dyke Jr..

## What happens

The speaker contrasts the passionate, sorrowful songs of European nightingales and larks with the simpler, more comforting wood-notes of the veery, a New England thrush. As life wanes, the speaker longs to hear the veery's song before death.

## Themes in this chapter

### Nature and Divine Beauty

The veery's song is presented as a pure, divine natural beauty that surpasses more ornate European bird songs.

### Grief and Memory

The speaker's longing for the veery is tied to a sense of loss and approaching death, evoking memory and grief.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The speaker who longs for the veery's song.

## Key lines

> The moonbeams over Arno’s vale in silver flood were pouring, When first I heard the nightingale a long-lost love deploring.

Under moonlight in the Arno valley, I first heard a nightingale mourning a lost love.

_Sets the scene in Italy with a romantic, sorrowful nightingale._

> I only know one song more sweet⁠—the vespers of the veery.

Only the evening song of the veery is sweeter to me.

_The veery's song is preferred over the lark's._

> But far away, and far away, the tawny thrush is singing; New England woods, at close of day, with that clear chant are ringing: And when my light of life is low, and heart and flesh are weary, I fain would hear, before I go, the wood-notes of the veery.

Far off in New England woods at dusk, the tawny thrush sings. When I am old and tired, I wish to hear that veery's song before I die.

_Expresses a deep, final longing for the veery's song as death approaches._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_10_se/chapters/the-veery
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_10_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_10_se/chapters