To+a+Sky-Lark



//“Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.”// //– Shelley//

"To a Sky-Lark" //Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!// 1 //Bird thou never wert-// //That from Heaven, or near it,// //Pourest thy full heart// //In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.// 2 //Higher still and higher// //From the earth thou springest// //Like a cloud of fire;// //The blue deep thou wingest,// //And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.// 3 //In the golden lightning// //Of the sunken Sun-// //O'er which clouds are brightning,// //Thou dost float and run;// //Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.// //The pale purple even// //Melts around thy flight,// //Like a star of Heaven// //In the broad day-light// 4 //Thou art unseen, -but yet I hear thy shrill delight,// //Keen as are the arrows// //Of that silver sphere,// //Whose intense lamp narrows// //In the white dawn clear// //Until we hardly see-we feel that it is there.// //All the earth and air// //With thy voice is loud,// //As when Night is bare// //From one lonely cloud// //The moon rains out her beams-and Heaven is overflowed.// //What thou art we know not;// //What is most like thee?// 5 //From rainbow clouds there flow not// //Drops so bright to see// //As from thy presence showers a rain of melody.// //Like a poet hidden// //In the light of thought,// //Singing hymns unbidden,// //Till the world is wrought// //To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not:// //Like a high-born maiden// //In a palace-tower,// //Soothing her love-laden// //Soul in secret hour,// //With music sweet as love-which overflows her bower:// //Like a glow-worm golden// //In a dell of dew,// //Scattering unbeholden// 6 //Its aerial hue// //Among the flowers and grass which screen it from the view:// //Like a rose embowered// //In its own green leaves-// //By warm winds deflowered-// //Till the scent, it gives// //Make faint with too much sweet those heavy-winged thieves// //Sound of vernal showers// //On the twinkling grass,// //Rain-awakened flowers,// //All that ever was// //Joyous, and clear and fresh, thy music doth surpass.// //Teach us, Sprite or Bird,// 7 //What sweet thoughts are thine;// //I have never heard// //Praise of love or wine// //That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine:// //Chorus Hymeneal// //Or triumphal chaunt// //Matched with thine would be all// //But an empty vaunt,// //A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want.// //What objects are the fountains// //Of thy happy strain?// //What fields or waves or mountains?// //What shapes of sky or plain?// //What love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain?// //With thy clear keen joyance// //Langour cannot be-// //Shadow of annoyance// //Never came near thee;// //Thou lovest-but ne'er knew love's sad satiety.// //Waking or asleep,// //Thou of death must deem// //Things more true and deep// //Than mortals dream,// 8 //Or how could thy note flow in such a chrystal stream?// //We look before and after,// //And pine for what is not-// //Our sincerest laughter// //With some pain is fraught-// //Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.// //Yes if we could scorn// //Hate and pride and fear;// //If we were things born// //Not to shed a tear,// //I know not how thy joy we ever should come near.// 9 //Better than all measures// //Of delightful sound-// //Better than all treasures// //That in books are found-// //Thy skill to poet were, thou Scorner of the ground!// 10 //Teach me half the gladness// //That thy brain must know,// //Such harmonious madness// 11 //From my lips would flow// //The world should listen then-as I am listening now.//

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Form

Shelley wrote "To a Sky-Lark" in twenty-one stanzas, each made up of five lines. The first four lines of each stanza are written in trochaic trimeter, meaning that each line contains three trochees (a trochee is a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable). The last line in each stanza does not follow this same meter, rather these lines are written in iambic hexameter (each line contains 6 iambs; an iamb is a metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable). The variation of the meter enables the poem to have a song-like quality to it--a characteristic that adequately captures the subject itself: the song of the skylark.

Interpretative Essay

In this poem, Shelley delves into his recurring idea of the transcendent and abstract notion of pure beauty, through the song of the skylark. In stanza 4, it is identified that the bird is unseen; nonetheless, the speaker can still hear its beautiful song. This image of the speaker following the skylark’s flight in a strictly auditory way makes the earth seem to be ringing with the song of the bird, especially as Shelley compares this experience to the way that the light intensely shines from the moon when it overcomes a cloud and peeks through (stanza 6). Shelley compares the skylark to many things, from a poet to the sound of a spring shower falling onto the earth. The poem then transitions to attempt to understand the special song of this bird; the skylark seems to be more joyous and content in its song than anything human thought could attain. The skylark is free of all human worry and pain, which is perhaps its best kept secret. The poem ends on a reflective note; if the skylark could teach merely “half the gladness” that it knows--as exemplified by its joyous song--then the speaker’s song too would be beautiful. Here, his own song would be through poetry or spoken word, and then all of the world would listen, for they would hear (and consequentially appreciate) something as merry as the song of the skylark.

References

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "To a Skylark." Trans. Array //The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic//  //Period.// 9th ed. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2012. 834-36. Print.

//Skylark//. N.d. Photograph. BirdWatch Ireland, Wicklow, Ireland. Web. 15 May 2015. 