A love poem written on the Canopus planet in 1996 by Tarbolde, which Gary Mitchell recites from memory as his mind expands in Where No Man Has Gone Before.
Nightingale Woman is a sonnet attributed to a poet named Tarbolde, written in 1996 on the Canopus planet. It is described as one of the most passionate love poems of the past two centuries.
It appears in Where No Man Has Gone Before. Changed by the energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy, Gary Mitchell lies in sickbay reading the ship's library at ever greater speed. When Dr Elizabeth Dehner comes to examine him, he tests his new recall by quoting the poem and naming its page. The lines are about a love that has wings.
The scene is an early sign of his growing power and of his interest in Dehner, who later begins to change as well. The verse was the work of Gene Roddenberry, who had written it years earlier as a poem about flying.