Summary

“The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde starts with a nightingale who overhears a student lamenting about his love life, as the girl he desires asked for a red rose in order to dance with him at an upcoming ball. Hearing the student cry with sorrow and despair because there is no red rose in his garden to offer his beloved, the nightingale takes pity on him. The other living creatures and natural elements in the garden — the lizard, the butterfly, the daisy — cannot understand why the student is so sad. But the nightingale, who feels she understands the young man, sets off to find him a red rose.

She first stops at a rose tree which only makes white roses and that sends her to another tree which only makes yellow roses. This tree finally sends the nightingale to the rose tree under the student’s window which makes red roses. However, the tree has been too affected by the winter frost and can no longer produce roses this year. Still, at the nightingale’s request, he tells her that ...