A poet who wrote the love sonnet Nightingale Woman on the Canopus planet in 1996, a work Gary Mitchell quotes from memory as his mind begins to expand.
Tarbolde was a poet who lived on what the dialogue calls the Canopus planet. In 1996 he wrote Nightingale Woman, described as one of the most passionate love sonnets of the previous two centuries.
The poem is quoted in the second Original Series pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before. After the Enterprise's encounter with the barrier at the edge of the galaxy, Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell lies in sickbay reading at tremendous speed. When the psychiatrist Elizabeth Dehner tests his recall, he recites lines from the sonnet and names its author, date and place of composition without effort. It is an early sign of the growing powers that will soon make him a danger to the ship.
Tarbolde is never seen, and whether he was human is not stated.