To a Skylark

Presented by: Wadha Mansour.

Shelley was believed in a philosopher first and a poet second.

He was one of the major English romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language.

Shelley became an idol of the next three or four generations of poets, including important victorian and Pre-Raphaelite poets such as Robert Browning, and Dante Gabriel Rosetti.

Shelley is perhaps best known for such classic poems as Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, Music, When Soft Voices Die, The Cloud and The Masque of Anarchy, which are among the most popular and critically acclaimed poems in the English language.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

His great poetry tells stories of life's lessons that you would never ever think about. He has educated people of many ages with his great poetry, telling them about his life, the good, the bad, and the simple.

Shelley believed , that art could change the world by offering to the reader's imagination what the "real" world denies: possibilities for rethinking and hence remaking the social hierarchy.

Form The work consists of five-line stanzas, all twenty-one following the same pattern.

The first four lines are in the meter of trochaic trimeter.

The fifth is in iambic hexameter, also known as an Alexandrine.

The rhyme scheme of each stanza is in the form ABABB.

Summary Of The Poem

The speaker of the poem hails the skylark as a spirit that "pours out" its feelings in wondrous singing. Its song is pure and natural "unpremeditated" (line 5). While the bird soars higher and higher, it continues to sing. Floating toward the setting sun, it seems like the bodiless spirit of joy. Eventually, the speaker cannot see the bird, for it is like trying to see a star in the light of day. But he can still hear its "shrill delight" (line 20).

At night, the skylark's song fills the air while "the moon rains out her beams" (line 30).

In the daytime, the song of the skylark is more beautiful than even a glorious rainbow. The speaker then makes the following comparisons:

1- The skylark is like a poet "hidden in the light of thought" (lines 36-37), a poet whose outpourings inspire people to reflect on "hopes and fears" (line 40) that they previously ignored.2- It is like a lovesick maiden in a palace tower: Outsiders cannot see her, but they can hear her song of love. 3-It is like a glow-worm in a meadow. Grass and flowers block its magnificent light from reaching human eyes.4-It is like a rose enclosed within its leaves. When a wind unleashes its fragrance, hovering bees become faint with the scent.

The sound of the skylark's song is more beautiful than "All that ever was / Joyous, and clear, and fresh . . . " (lines 59-60), the speaker asks it to teach the world its thoughts. Never before has he heard "Praise of love or wine / That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine" (lines 64-65) as does the skylark. Wedding songs and chants of triumph are empty sounds compared to the skylark's song. What, the speaker asks, causes the bird to make so wonderful a sound.

Humans do not know such joy. We "pine for what is not" (line 86), and in our laughter there is always some measure of pain. And what of our songs? Our sweetest ones are about sadness. But even if we renounced hatred, pride, and fear, even if we never shed a tear, we could never be as joyful as the skylark. Its song is better than all other sounds and is more beautiful than all the treasures of literature.

The speaker says the skylark apparently has never experienced boredom or annoyance; it must have some special knowledge of death—of what is to come—that enables it sing with such joy.

The speaker concludes by asking the skylark to teach him "half the gladness" (line 101) that it knows. With such knowledge, the speaker could present to the world "harmonious madness" (line 103) that all would listen to.

ThemesNatural BeautyThe song of the skylark is extraordinarily beautiful because it is pure and natural, unlike the sounds created by human contrivance and artifice. The poem's speaker presents this theme in lines 4 and 5 when he says the skylark "Pourest thy full heart / In profuse strains of unpremeditated art."

FreedomThe speaker envies the skylark for its boundless freedom to roam the skies. He says, "Thou dost float and run, / Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun" (lines 14-15). In his own life, Shelley was a rebel who constantly struggled against the dictates of authority.

Inspiration The skylark is natural metaphor that represent pure poetic expression, and the "harmonious madness" for pure inspiration. The skylark inspires Shelley to feel a frantic, rapturous joy that has no part of pain.

the skylark sings free of all human error and complexity, and while listening to his song, the poet feels free of those things, too.

Such harmonious madness (line 103)

Apostrophe

The speaker addresses the bird.

Metaphor

Paradox

The speaker addresses the bird.Hail to thee, blithe spirit! (line 1)

Comparison of moonlight to rainThe moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflow'd.

(line 30)

Better than all measuresOf delightful sound,

Better than all treasures (lines 96-99)

Repetition

2- Comparison of the skylark to joy..Thou dost float and run;

Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun Like a star of Heaven,

In the broad day-light (line 14-15)

Simile

1 -Comparison of the skylark to a cloud of fire.

From the earth thou springest, Like a cloud of fire; (lines 7-8)

3-Comparison of the skylark to a star.Like a star of heaven,In the broad daylight

Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight-(lines 18-20)

4- Comparison of the sweetness of music love With music sweet as love (line 45)

5-The following stanzas are also similes:Lines 36-40Lines 41-45Lines 46-50Lines 51-55

Like a poet hiddenIn the light of thought,

Singing hymns unbidden,Till the world is wrought

To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not: (Lines 36-40)

Like a high-born maidenIn a palace tower,

Soothing her love-ladenSoul in secret hour

With music sweet as love, which overflows her bower:(Lines 41-45)

Like a glow-worm goldenIn a dell of dew,

Scattering unbeholdenIts aërial hue

Among the flowers and grass which screen it from the view:(Lines 46-50)

Like a rose embower'dIn its own green leaves,

By warm winds deflower'd,Till the scent it gives

Makes faint with too much sweet those heavy-wingèd thieves.(Lines 51-55)

Imagery

In the first half of the poem, Shelley presents images of light and brightness to suggest the

celestial quality of the skylark's song and perhaps to symbolize the radiance of his own

poetry, which he hoped would gain more widespread attention. Following are examples

of this imagery :Like a cloud of fire (line 8)

In the golden lightningOf the sunken sun

O'er which clouds are bright'ning (lines 11-13)

Like a star of Heaven,In the broad day-light

Thou art unseen. . . . (lines 18-20)

Like a Poet hiddenIn the light of thought (lines 36-37)

Like a glow-worm goldenIn a dell of dew (lines 46-47)

From rainbow clouds there flow notDrops so bright to see

As from thy presence showers a rain of melody (lines 33-35)

The moon rains out her beams (line 30)

In the poem “Ode to Skylark” Shelley symbolizes the Skylark-“blithe spirit” as if it had the power to response. He offers a warm welcome to the Skylark.

The Skylark is unseen but still it is compared to a poet composing, a maiden in love, a glow-worm throwing out its beams of light, a rose in bloom diffusing its scent, and the sound of rain on twinkling grass. Shelley finds the Skylark as the embodiment of all these qualities which can never be found in a single human being .

Symbolism

Shelley also symbolizes the human song as “an empty vaunt” comparing it with Skylark’s joyful songs. Humans also sing songs in praise of love or wine. They sing songs in order to celebrate a wedding or a victory but compared with the Skylark’s singing, all human songs would seem to be meaningless. We feel that there is some hidden want in human performance. Thus Shelley makes the bird Skylark a symbol of pure, unalloyed ad unrestricted happiness.

The skylark is a symbol of exultation and spiritual desire ..

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