What does the poet mean here by the verb "wing"?

Question

Here's the poem, i've been discussing the meaning with friends.

Good-night? ah! no; the hour is ill
Which severs those it should unite;
Let us remain together still,
Then it will be good night.

How can I call the lone night good,
Though thy sweet wishes wing its flight?
Be it not said, thought, understood —
Then it will be--good night.

To hearts which near each other move
From evening close to morning light,
The night is good; because, my love,
They never say good-night.

the line though thy sweet wishes wing its flight? what do you think is the meaning and reference of the verb "wing" here? I thought at first that she wished the lone night to come, to speed up the approach of it, because she said good night in the first place, Shelley rejects this separation and explains that how a night can be good instead. but wing also has another meaning which is to shoot down a bird from its wings. so, if this nights is lone and bad her wishes might want to shoot the approaching night and slow it down. but this second meaning concludes that she wants to stay together, which i do not think is true for this context. poet clearly heard her say goodnight and responded with this poem. anyway, this is my thought, what do you think about this verb? i think its the key to this poem.

Answer 1

First, the phrase itself. For something to "wing its flight" means more or less to "send it on its flight". I see this wording as a number of steps removed from everyday prose:

1. To make your way somewhere: To go somewhere.
2. To verb your way somewhere: To go somewhere by verbing. For example, "to crawl your way across the room" → "to go across the room by crawling".
3. To wing your way somewhere: The same structure but poetic, because of the relative rarity of "to wing" as a verb.
4. To wing your flight: A poetic modification of the above, probably chosen for the sake of the rhyme. Of course, it makes sense that if you're winging, it's not just a way, it's a flight. This wouldn't trip up native speakers.
5. To wing something else's flight: Whereas this does make a native speaker pause! Here the wishes wing the lone night's flight. I suppose they mean they cause it to wing its flight, i.e. fly.

Now let's use that knowledge to understand the passage:

How can I call the lone night good,
Though thy sweet wishes wing its flight?

Here it is in plain English:

I can't say the night alone is good, even though it was your sweet wishes (of "good night") that sent it (the night) on its way (towards me).

Note that in the next passage, "it" changes referent more than once:

Be it not said, thought, understood —
Then it will be — good night.

Again in plain English:

As long as it (the phrase "good night") is not said, thought, or heard, then it (the night) will be a good night.

This clever play on words is somewhat hard to untangle but I hope you find it rewarding. :)

Answer 2

The transitive verb to wing means "to be the wings of" {direct object}.