The Nightingale and the Rose

“‘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. His hair is dark as the hyacinth-blossom, and his lips are red as the rose of his desire; but passion has made his face like pale ivory, and sorrow has set her seal upon his brow.’”

The Nightingale reveals that she has been seeking an “ideal lover” for some time that she is consequently invested in the Student’s story. The sensuous description of the Student’s appearance is an excellent example of Wilde’s descriptive prose, which was influenced by aesthetic beliefs in “art for art’s sake,” as the Student’s appearance has little importance in the story. That said, the description becomes noteworthy in retrospect, as the Student’s character does not match his appearance. The reference to hyacinths, named for the doomed lover of the Greek god Apollo, is particularly ironic, as it is not the Student who will suffer an untimely death.

“What I sing of, he suffers—what is joy to me, to him is pain. Surely Love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals. Pearls and pomegranates cannot buy it, nor is it set forth in the marketplace. It may not be purchased of the merchants, nor can it be weighed out in the balance for gold.”

The Nightingale asserts the value of love beyond all else—especially above material goods. This line foreshadows the Professor’s daughter’s contrary assertion that “everybody knows jewels cost far more than flowers” (66), in which she justifies her rejection of the rose. Although the Nightingale implies that the Student’s “suffering” gives him insight into love that she lacks, it is in fact the Nightingale, with her artistic sensibility, who truly understands