To a Skylark

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

An introduction to ‘To a Skylark’

Theme:Romanticism

P B Shelley's 'To a Skylark' was inspired by the song of a real skylark,

heard in Italy in 1820. Stephen Hebron considers how Shelley
transforms ordinary experience into a plea to move beyond that
experience to a deeper poetic understanding.
Shelley composed ‘To a Skylark’ in the summer of 1820, when he was
living in Livorno, a town on the north-west coast of Italy. It is one of
his most accessible and popular poems. He begins by praising the
evening flight of the skylark, then looks without success for examples
of equivalent beauty, and finally asks the bird to teach him its ‘sweet
thoughts’.
In her note to the poem Mary Shelley traced its genesis to a particular
summer evening: ‘while wandering among the lanes whose myrtle
hedges were the bowers of the fire-flies … we heard the carolling of
the skylark which inspired one of the most beautiful of his poems’. In
an early poem, ‘Shelley’s Skylark’, Thomas Hardy imagined ‘The dust
of the lark that Shelley heard’, and requests the ‘faeries’ to find it,
together with a casket,

And we will lay it safe therein,

And consecrate it to endless time;
For it inspired a bard to win
Ecstatic heights in thought and rhyme.
‘To a Skylark’ is not, however, a description of a particular occasion,
or a particular bird; rather, it is a search for something ideal and elusive,
something which cannot, in the end, be captured in words.

‘Bird thou never wert’

The skylark only sings when it is in the air, and usually from such a
height that it is invisible to the human eye. ‘Bird thou never wert’ writes
Shelley of this unseen presence, which is not so much a physical form
as a joyous, disembodied voice that soars in the ‘deep blue’, that floats
and runs in the golden light of evening. Like the keen light of Venus,
the morning star, it narrows ‘Until we hardly see – we feel that it is
there’.
‘What is most like thee?’ Shelley asks the skylark. Its melody is like
the hymns sung by ‘a Poet hidden / In the light of thought’; the love
songs of ‘a high-born maiden / In a palace-tower’; the ‘aerial hue’ cast
by a glow-worm over ‘the flowers and grass which screen it from the
view’; the scent given by a rose when ‘By warm winds deflowered’;
and the sound of rain ‘On the twinkling grass’. And yet, admits Shelley,
‘All that ever was / Joyous, and clear and fresh, thy music doth surpass’.
‘Harmonious madness’
Shelley consequently asks the skylark to teach him its thoughts,
compared to which, he believes, mankind’s weddings songs (‘Chorus
Hymeneal’) and chants of triumph would be no more than empty
boasts. The bird appears to be blissfully free of those things that weigh
down human life. It seems ignorant of pain, languor and anger, and
must have a deeper and truer knowledge of death, ‘Or how could thy
notes flow in such a chrystal stream?’ Should the skylark ‘Teach me
half the gladness / That thy brain must know’, Shelley writes in the
concluding stanza, it would bring him an ‘harmonious madness’ of the
kind Plato describes in Phaedrus, which Shelley had read in May 1819:
‘If anyone comes to the gates of poetry and expects to become an
adequate poet by acquiring expert knowledge of the subject without the
Muses’ madness’, says Socrates, ‘he will fail, and his self-controlled
verses will be eclipsed by the poetry of men who have been driven out
of their minds.’[1]
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought’
In ‘To a Skylark’ Shelley creates, through a series of fine images and
similes, a most beguiling evocation of the skylark’s carefree, crystalline
existence. Equally, he vividly evokes contrasting human
characteristics:
And pine for what is not –
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught –
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.
Quoted on its own – as it often is – this famous stanza can seem
sentimental and self-pitying, just as the poem’s lyrical images of
earthly beauties can, when taken out of context, come across as rather
meaningless. One can see why Matthew Arnold described Shelley as
‘a beautiful but ineffectual angel, beating in the void his luminous
wings in vain’.[2] Read in its entirety, however, ‘To a Skylark’
brilliantly illustrates Shelley’s conviction that the human mind, and, by
extension, human society, operates not according to fixed mental or
emotional states, but to a constantly changing, and never resolved
tension between the body and soul, the physical and the imagined,
despondency and optimism, harsh reality and idealism. The joyous
existence represented by the skylark is never seen, still less achieved,
but it remains a vivid and keenly envisioned ideal. It is the process
which matters, and Shelley’s great achievement in this and other poems
is to capture this fluidity in poetic form. As he wrote in Prometheus
Unbound (1820):
Language is a perpetual Orphic song,
Which rules with daedal harmony a throng
Of thoughts and forms, which else senseless and shapeless were.

About Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1792 in Broadbridge Heath, England.

He was raised in the countryside and was educated at University
College Oxford. While in school Shelley was well known for his liberal
views and was once chastised for writing a pamphlet titled, The
Necessity of Atheism. His parents were severely disappointed in him
and demanded that he forsake all of his beliefs. Soon after this, he
eloped with a 16-year-old woman, Harriet Westbrook, whom he soon
tired. It was at this time that Shelley began writing his long-form poetry
for which he is best known.

Shelley had two children with Harriet but before their second was born
he left her for the future author of Frankenstein or The Modern
Prometheus, Mary Godwin. Mary became pregnant with her and
Shelley’s first child soon after and Harriet sued Shelley for divorce.
Soon after this Mary and Percy met Lord Byron, or George Gordon, it
was through one of their meetings that Mary was inspired to
write Frankenstein.
In 1816 Shelley’s first wife Harriet committed suicide and Mary and
Percy were officially wed. During their time together Mary Shelley’s
only child to live into adulthood was Percy Florence. In early 1818 he
and his wife left England and Shelley produced the majority of his most
well-known works including, Prometheus Unbound. In 1822, not long
before he was meant to turn 30, Shelley was drowned in a storm while
sailing in his schooner on the way to La Spezia, Italy. Mary was only
24 at the time and would live to the age of 53, dying of brain cancer in
London in 1851.

1. Summary & Analysis

One of Percy Bysshe Shelley's most famous poems, "To a Skylark"
describes the powerful grace and beauty of the skylark's birdsong.
Shelley wrote "To a Skylark" in 1820 after hearing the bird's distinctive
calls while walking through the port city of Livorno, Italy. The poem's
speaker addresses the bird directly and praises the purity of its music,
which is later contrasted with sad, hollow human communication. As
an ode to the unmatched splendors of the natural world—and
especially its spiritual power—"To a Skylark" remains a quintessential
example of Romantic poetry. The poem's unconventional form features
a song-like rhyme scheme and bouncy rhythm that subtly mimics the
skylark's calls.

• “To a Skylark” Summary

o The speaker passionately calls out to a skylark, praising it as a

joyous “spirit.” The speaker goes on to explain that the skylark

was never really a bird. Rather, the skylark is a creature from
Heaven—or at least near Heaven—and from there, the skylark
spontaneously pours out its emotions in plentiful, artful strings
of musical notes.
The bird continues to soar, rising higher and higher from the
earth, which reminds the speaker of billowing flames. The bird
glides throughout the vast, blue sky, flying as it sings and
singing as it flies.
The sun begins to set, giving off a golden light that illuminates
the surrounding clouds. The bird drifts about the glimmering
sky, as if it’s a disembodied form of happiness only just
beginning a race.
The faint purple evening makes way for the skylark’s flight,
dissolving around it and enveloping the bird. The skylark is like
a bright star in the sky that can't be seen during the day. The
speaker can't see the bird, but still hears its high-pitched song.
The speaker deems the skylark's song as bright and piercing as
moonbeams, whose powerful glow is dimmed by the bright
white of the morning sky. Although its light is difficult to make
out, the speaker notes, people still perceive that it is present.
The skylark’s rich calls seem to fill the whole sky and earth
below, reminding the speaker of the moon on a clear night—its
rays stream out from a solitary cloud, appearing to fill the sky
until it overflows.
As human beings do not truly understand the power of the
skylark, the speaker asks the bird for help finding a worthy
comparison for it, asking the skylark what other creature or
thing is most like itself. The speaker explains that even the
light-reflecting water droplets of rainbow clouds pale in
comparison to the showers of beautiful music that the skylark
rains down.
The speaker compares the skylark to a poet enveloped in a deep
thought. The poet writes uninvited lyrics—brought about by
pure creative instinct—until humankind is made sympathetic to
the hopes and fears it has previously disregarded.
Next, the speaker compares the skylark to an aristocratic young
woman who secretly sings from the tower of a castle to comfort
her soul, which is burdened by love. Her songs are as delightful
as love itself, and they fill her chambers.
According to the speaker, the skylark is also similar to a radiant
glow-worm in a small, dew-covered valley. Not out of
obligation, but rather of its own free will, the glow-worm
distributes its glowing light among the plant life, which hides
the insect from view.
Finally, the speaker likens the skylark to a rose that is sheltered
by its own leaves before warm gusts of air sweep them
away. The overwhelming sweetness of the flower’s perfume
intoxicates nearby bees.
The speaker goes on to list all the pleasant sounds that cannot
compare to the skylark’s song—light springtime rain falling on
glistening grass, flowers brought to life by rainfall, and
everything else that has ever been happy, sharp, and vibrant.
Unsure whether the skylark is more like a bird or a fairy, the
speaker asks the skylark to educate humankind about its pure,
delightful thoughts. The speaker claims to have never heard
human communication—lyrics worshiping things like romance
and wine—that was as heavenly as the skylark’s impassioned
outpourings of emotion.
In the speaker’s eyes, when measured against the birdsong,
even wedding hymns and songs celebrating victories are
nothing but hollow boasts that hint at an unspoken desire for
something more.
The speaker wonders aloud about the sources of inspiration
behind the skylark’s calls, asking the bird which objects have
been the source of its joyful melodies—specific stretches of
open land, bodies of water, or mountain ranges? Formations of
sky or grassland? Love of other larks or unfamiliarity with
suffering?
Due to the clear, intense happiness in the skylark’s song, the
speaker cannot imagine that it is exhausted or has known any
trace of irritation. The speaker concludes that the skylark loves
but has never experienced the sadness that excessive love can
bring.
Moreover, the speaker believes that the skylark—whether
conscious or not—must consider matters of death more deeply
and insightfully than mere mortal human beings could
imagine. The speaker wonders what else could explain how the
skylark’s music flows forth with such beauty and clarity.
The speaker elaborates on the differences between human
concerns and those of the skylark—people look towards the
past and the future and long for what they don’t have. Further,
even the most genuine human laughter contains some degree of
suffering, and the most pleasing songs that people compose also
express the most misery.
Even if humankind was incapable of crying and could reject
hatred, vanity, and fear, the speaker still does not believe that it
would be able to approximate the skylark’s bliss.
Addressing the skylark as a creature who dismisses earthly
matters, the speaker explains that, to poets, the skylark’s skill
is greater than the rhythm of any beautiful sound or any
precious piece of information that can be found in a book.
The speaker makes one final plea to the skylark, asking the bird
to share half the knowledge of happiness that it must have. The
speaker believes that gaining such knowledge would cause
melodious chaos to spill from the speaker’s
 mouth. Furthermore, the speaker believes that humankind
would listen to such verses, just as the speaker listens to the
skylark.

To a Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley

‘To a Skylark‘ by Percy Bysshe Shelley is a twenty-one stanza ode that is

consistent in its rhyme scheme from the very first to the last stanza. The
piece rhymes, ABABB, with varying end sounds, from beginning to end.

This strictly formatted pattern is also consistent in the meter. The first four
lines of each stanza are written in trochaic trimeter, meaning that a stressed
syllable comes before an unstressed (trochaic). Additionally, each of the
first four lines has three of these beats (trimeter). Different from the other
four, but consistent with the rest of the poem, the fifth longer line of each
stanza is written in iambic hexameter. This means that each line has six
beats of unstressed syllables preceding stressed.

It is also important to make note of the speaker in “To a Skylark.” As has

been revealed in poems such as “Ode to the West Wind,” this piece is based
on an actual experience the poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, had. Therefore, the
poet himself will be considered as the speaker of the poem.

Summary

‘To a Skylark’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley is an ode to the “blithe” essence of

a singing skylark and how human beings are unable to ever reach that same
bliss.
The poem begins with the speaker spotting a skylark flying above him. He
can hear the song clearly. The bird’s song “unpremeditated,” is unplanned
and beautiful.
Shelley is stunned by the music produced by the bird and entranced by its
movement as it flies into the clouds and out of sight. Although he can no
longer see it, he is still able to hear it and feel it’s presence. The bird
represents pure, unbridled happiness that Shelley is desperately seeking.
This desperation comes through in the next stanzas.

The poet then embarks on a number of metaphors through which he is

hoping to better understand what the bird is and what he can accurately
compare it to. He sees the bird as a “high-born maiden” that serenades her
lover below her and spring, or “vernal,” showers that rain on the flowers
below. The skylark is like “rainbow clouds” and the epitome of all
“Joyous” things.

The next section of the ode is used to ask the skylark to reveal what inspires
it to sing such a glorious song. Is it, the poet asks, “fields, or waves, or
mountains?” Could it be, he speculates, “shapes of sky or plain?” Whatever
it may be, Shelley has never seen anything that could force such sounds
from his own voice.

He states that for a creature to have the ability to sing in such a way, it must
know nothing of sorrow or “annoyance.” The bird must have the ability to
see beyond life, understand death, and feel no concern about it. This is why
humans may never reach the same state of happiness that the skylark exists
within. “We” pine for things that we do not have, and even our “sweetest
songs” are full of the “saddest thought[s].”

‘To a Skylark‘ concludes with the poet pleading with the bird to “Teach
[him] half the gladness / That thy brain must know.” Even that small
amount would provide Shelley with the ability to produce “harmonious
madness” that would force the world to listen to him must as raptly as he
is listening to the skylark now.
Analysis of To a Skylark

First Stanza

Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!

Bird thou never wert,
That from Heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.
“To a Skylark” begins with the speaker, Percy Bysshe Shelley (as was
detailed in the introduction), pointing out a skylark in the sky. He calls out
to the bird, not in greeting, but in reverence, “Hail to thee.”

He is amazed at the sight, and as the reader will later discover, the song of
the bird. He refers to the bird as “blithe Spirit,” meaning happiness or
joyful. More details will follow, but Shelley sees this bird as the epitome
of joy. It is less a bird, and more an essence, a “Spirit.”

It is the best of all birds, it appears so beautiful to Shelley at that moment

that he claims it has come from “Heaven,” or at least from somewhere
“near it.”

The bird is swooping in the sky and “Pour[ing]” from it’s “heart” a song
that is described as “profuse,” or abundant, and full of “unpremeditated
art.” It is an artful song that is not planned or scripted and is, therefore, all
the more beautiful.

Second Stanza

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.
In the second stanza of ‘To a Skylark‘, Shelley makes some additional
observations. The bird is not stopping its ascent, it is flying “Higher still”
as if it has sprung up from the earth. He compares the skylark to “a cloud
of fire.” It is powerful and unstoppable. Perhaps the bird is returning to the
“Heaven” from where it first came.

Even though the bird is still ascending, it also keeps up its song. It does the
two simultaneously, it “still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.”

Third Stanza

In the golden lightning

Of the sunken sun,
O’er which clouds are bright’ning,
Thou dost float and run;
Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.
The bird is ascending up towards the “golden lightening” of the sun. The
sun is “sunken” or low on the horizon, a most likely setting for the day,
giving the scene greater ambiance as sunrise and sunset have always been
seen as magical times.

It flies up over the clouds that are closest to the sun. It is as if the bird is
“float[ing] and run[ing].” Behind the skylark is the power of “unbodied
joy” that does not run out of energy, it’s “race is just begun.”
Fourth Stanza

The pale purple even

Melts around thy flight;
Like a star of Heaven,
In the broad day-light
Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight,
At this point in ‘To a Skylark‘, the bird becomes obscured in the “pale
purple” sky. The sun is truly going down and the light in the sky is
changing. It seems to “Melt” around the skylark as it flies.

Shelley compares this scene to one that the reader might come across
during the day. As one casts their eyes to the sky during the day it is
impossible to see stars, “but yet” one knows they are there. This same thing
stands true for Shelley who senses the bird’s presence but can no longer
see it. It is as if the bird has become “a star of Heaven,” or perhaps it
already was.

Fifth Stanza

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.
In the fifth stanza, Shelley makes a comparison between the bird and the
moon. He is directly relating happiness and joy to the beauty of the natural
world, a theme that Shelley was not unfamiliar with.
The bird is as “Keen” as the “arrows” of light that emanate from the “silver
sphere” that is the moon. At night the moon is “intense[ly] bright,” but
during the day, once “white dawn clear[s],” it is very hard to see. It
eventually disappears but we still know and “feel that it is there.”

Sixth Stanza

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 overflow’d.
The poet expands on this idea in the sixth stanza: The entire atmosphere of
the earth, all the one can see and cannot see, depending on the time of day
is made greater when the bird’s voice is there. The bird is like the rays of
the moon that rain down from Heaven.

Seventh Stanza

What thou art we know not;

What is most like thee?
From rainbow clouds there flow not
Drops so bright to see
As from thy presence showers a rain of melody.
It is at this point that the poet will once more return to the idea that the bird
is more than just a creature, it is representing something greater. It is the
essence of happiness and all that is needed to live a joyful life.
The speaker begins by stating that he does not know exactly what the
skylark is, only what he can think to compare it to. He names off a number
of things that he could compare the bird to. The first is “rainbow clouds,”
which sound pristinely beautiful, but the poet quickly dismisses them, as
the “Drops” they rain are nothing compared to the “melody” that
“showers” from the skylark’s presence.

Eighth Stanza

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:
The next couple stanzas continue on this theme as Shelley tries to figure
out how exactly to describe the bird.

It is, he states, like a poetic impulse that cannot be restrained. It is “singing

hymns unbidden that have unintended, but wonderful, consequences. The
song of the bird forces sympathy to surface in the minds of those that have
not in the past heeded the “hopes and fears” of others. It is actively and
morally improving those who hear its song.

Ninth Stanza

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:
Stanza nine of ‘To a Skylark‘ provides the reader with another comparison.
The skylark is said to be like a “high-born maiden” that is locked away in
a “palace-tower.” From there, way above her lover, as the bird is above the
poet, she is able to secretly “Sooth” his “soul.” Her words, just like the
bird’s music, are “sweet as love” and in the case of the maiden, it
“overflows her bower,” or bedroom.

Tenth Stanza

Like a glow-worm golden

In a dell of dew,
Scattering unbeholden
Its aerial hue
Among the flowers and grass, which screen it from the view:
Shelley still has a couple more comparisons to share. He sees the bird as a
“glow-worm” that is emanating “golden” light in a “dell,” or small valley
in the woods, amongst the “dew.” This small moment of beauty is as
delicate and important as the moment in which Shelley is living. These
natural comparisons are those that bring Shelley the closest to relaying the
emotion he felt while hearing and briefly seeing the skylark.

The bird is “Scattering” it’s “hue” or happiness from the sky. It is

“unbeholden” to anyone or anything, it’s mind and actions are it’s own. Its
joy is raining down “Among the flowers and grass,” its essence is
becoming a part of everything, not seen, but felt.
Eleventh Stanza

Like a rose embower’d

In its own green leaves,
By warm winds deflower’d,
Till the scent it gives
Makes faint with too much sweet those heavy-winged thieves:
In the eleventh stanza, the speaker presents one final comparison. The
sounds, the feeling, and the look of the bird reminds Shelley of a “rose”
that is protected, or “embower’d” but it’s own leaves.

The protection does not last forever and “warm winds” can blow off all of
its flowers and spread its scent within the breeze. Quickly the “sweet” of
the petals are too much even for the winds, “those heavy-winged thieves.”

Twelfth Stanza

Sound of vernal showers

On the twinkling grass,
Rain-awaken’d flowers,
All that ever was
Joyous, and clear, and fresh, thy music doth surpass.
The speaker’s metaphor extends into the twelfth stanza. The sound of the
bird’s song is beyond everything. It “surpass[es]” everything that ever was
before considered “Joyous, and clear, and fresh.” It is better than the
“Sound of vernal,” or spring, “showers” landing on the “twinkling grass”
and the beauty of the flowers that rain will have “awaken’d.”
Thirteenth Stanza

Teach us, Sprite or Bird,

What sweet thoughts are thine:
I have never heard
Praise of love or wine
That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine.
This is a turning point in ‘To a Skylark‘ where the speaker, having
exhausted his metaphors, turns back to the skylark and addresses it.

He is hoping that the “Bird,” or perhaps it is more apt to call it a “Sprite”

as it embodies an emotion, what thoughts it is thinking. As a poet, he is
trying to relate to this flood of art and has in his life never seen anything
that can inspire such beauty. Not “Praise of love or wine.”

Fourteenth Stanza

Chorus Hymeneal,
Or triumphal chant,
Match’d with thine would be all
But an empty vaunt,
A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want.
The song of the bird is described as being like a hymn sung by a chorus as
well as like a “triumphal chant.” It is suited to all occasions and all
contingencies of human life. It can equally outmatch religious or war-
time subject matter and inspiration.
Anything that would even attempt to compete with the bird would be “an
empty vaunt,” or a baseless boast. Other songs would clearly be missing
something, an element that is impossible to name, but clearly not there.

Fifteenth Stanza

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?
Once more the speaker probes the bird’s mind. “What,” he asks, are you
thinking about? “What objects,” or visions does your beautiful song come
from?

He is determined in his questions, willing the bird with all his might to
answer. He believes that just around the corner, with just a few words from
the bird, he will have the answer to one of life’s greatest questions. How
to find happiness.

He poses a number of options, is your song inspired by “fields, or waves

or mountains?” Or perhaps it is given its form by the “shapes of sky or
plain,” meaning fields.

He continues questioning. Does your son come from “love of thine own
kind?” A love that the skylark has found amongst its own species or just a
life blessed without pain.
Sixteenth Stanza

With thy clear keen joyance

Languor cannot be:
Shadow of annoyance
Never came near thee:
Thou lovest: but ne’er knew love’s sad satiety.
The speaker does not believe that someone who has ever felt pain, the
“Shadow of annoyance,” or “Languor” could produce this song of “keen
joyance.” In fact, these elements of life can’t have even come close to
touching the skylark. He knows, somehow, that the bird has experienced
the wonders of love, without “love’s sad satiety,” or disappointing
conclusions.

Seventeenth Stanza

Waking or asleep,
Thou of death must deem
Things more true and deep
Than we mortals dream,
Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream?
From the notes of the bird’s song, Shelley continues to make guesses about
its interior life. He believes that for the bird to be able to produce such a
pure sound it must understand much more about life and death than “we
mortals dream.” This knowledge must be given from beyond and therefore,
the beyond is where the sounds must come.
Eighteenth Stanza

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.
‘To a Skylark‘ is in its conclusion and the speaker, Percy Bysshe Shelley,
continues to make sweeping claims about the nature of the skylark. He
compares, in this stanza, the way that humans view death to the way that
the skylark must.

“We” are only able to view death as “before and after” while “pin[ing]”
for what we don’t have. We are incapable of enjoying anything without
remembering our own pain. This is clearest through our “sweetest songs”
which are not as pure as the skylark’s unbridled happiness.

Nineteenth Stanza

Yet 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.
The poet continues on, stating that even if the human race was able to shake
off their “Hate, and pride and fear” and all the very human things with
which we are born, even if we are able to find a state of being in which we
“shed” not a “tear,” still, we would not know the joy that the skylark does.
We would not be able to “come near.”

Twentieth Stanza

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!
In the final two stanzas of ‘To a Skylark‘, the poet makes one final plea to
the skylark.

He begins by saying that the ability to sing and experience happiness as

the skylark does is worth more to him than all “treasures / That in books
are found.” It is better “than all measures” of other “delightful sound.”

Twenty-First Stanza

Teach me half the gladness

That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow
The world should listen then, as I am listening now.
He asks the skylark to please, “Teach me half the gladness / That thy brain
must know.” If Shelley could even know a portion of the bird’s pleasure
he believes that from “my lips” a “harmonious madness” would flow. He
would be overcome with his own new abilities. His joyful sound would
force the world to listen to him as intently as he is now listening to the
skylark.

All in all, ‘To a Skylark‘ is about a man’s search for happiness. At points
he seems on the verge of desperation, hoping beyond hope that this small
bird will answer his biggest question. This poem is notably relatable for
this reason. Who has not wanted in their bleakest moments, a quick fix, an
instant reprieve, or a way into perpetual joy?

“To a Skylark” Themes

The Majesty and Divinity of Nature

The poem’s speaker addresses a skylark—a small, brown bird known for
its impressive song, which the bird can sustain continuously even when in
flight. The speaker praises the beauty and power of the skylark's calls,
repeatedly highlighting the bird's connection to the glory of the natural
world. In doing so, the speaker champions the skylark as an example of
nature's divinity and majesty—something, the poem implies, that human
beings will never fully understand.
The speaker lovingly describes the intensity and beauty of the
skylark's song, playing up the calls' musical quality to drive
home just how captivating they are. For example, the speaker
describes the birdsong as cascading down onto its listeners in
"a rain of melody." Likewise, the speaker wonders how the
bird’s "notes flow in such a crystal stream."
The speaker indicates that the skylark's music powerfully
envelops or "washes over" its audience, and later compares it
to "music sweet as love" that a maiden uses to comfort herself
when she is lonely. But the sound of the skylark is even "better
than all measures" that the speaker has heard produced by
human beings. In other words, the power of its organic melody
is unique to the natural world—it cannot be matched by the
sounds of human civilization.
And it's not just the skylark itself that the speaker details in
highly complimentary terms, either; images of natural beauty
fill the poem, and they are directly linked to the bird. All this
suggests that the skylark embodies the universal splendor of
the natural world. The speaker uses a series of similes to
compare the skylark's beauty to that of other living things, for
example, with the bird releasing its song likened to "a glow-
worm golden" spreading its light amongst the plant life "in a
dell of dew." The skylark is also compared to a rose whose
leaves are swept away by the wind, distributing its sweet scent,
which intoxicates nearby insects.
Religious language appears throughout the poem as well to
describe the bird and its setting, imbuing nature with a kind of
divine presence. For instance, the skylark's calls come "from
Heaven, or near it." By stating that the skylark originates from
Heaven or is at least "near" God, the speaker suggests that the
bird is similar to a divine being. And in continuing to refer to
the sky as "Heaven" throughout the poem, the speaker implies
that nature offers spiritual insight, perhaps even salvation.
The skylark is further linked to divinity in that its calls are so
strong that even when the bird is "unseen," the speaker still
hears its "shrill delight." Here, the word "shrill" highlights the
piercing quality of the skylark's voice, while "delight"
emphasizes the beauty of its song. The speaker then reinforces
the strength of the bird's calls in the next stanza, stating that
"until we hardly see, we feel that it is there." As such, the
speaker expresses a deep reverence for the skylark, marveling
at its ability to captivate its audience even from great heights.
 Like God, it doesn't need to be seen directly for it to profoundly
affect the human world below.
In this way, the skylark—and nature in general—might be seen
as a bridge between humankind and the divine. In any case, the
speaker’s address to the skylark details the splendors of the
natural world, suggesting that humankind should recognize and
celebrate its wonder and majesty.

The Limits of Human Communication

Throughout the poem, the speaker is awestruck by the skylark,
and especially by the purity of its song. The speaker contrasts
this purity with the emptiness and insufficiency of human forms
of expression. As a poet, the speaker seeks to learn from the
joyful skylark, suggesting that the natural world contains truths
that conventional forms of human communication—burdened
in the poem by sadness and disillusionment—are unable to
express.
The speaker describes the beauty of the skylark’s song as
something innate—that is, as something integral to its nature.
The bird "pourest [its] full heart / In profuse strains of
unpremeditated art," the speaker says, meaning that the
skylark's "art" is a spontaneous act that comes naturally to the
bird. It is "unpremeditated," rather than carefully planned ahead
of time.
What's more, the birdsong is born out of pure, unadulterated
joy. In fact, the skylark is first addressed as "blithe Spirit" and
later compared to "an unbodied joy." The skylark is, in fact,
completely free of pain—or, as the speaker puts it, "Thou
lovest: but ne’er knew love’s sad satiety." The speaker posits
that the bird’s "ignorance of pain" has helped to create its
 beautiful songs. By contrast, even the "sweetest songs" that
human beings have produced are stained with suffering and
"tell the saddest thought."
The speaker continues to elevate the bird’s pure, joyous
expression over human communication with its many
shortcomings. The speaker has "never heard / Praise of love or
wine"—typical subjects of human artistic expression—that are
as compelling and dignified as the birdsong. Even poetry is no
match for the skylark’s calls. To poets, the skylark’s lyric
mastery beats "all treasures / That in books are found." In other
words, the skylark's song is better than anything human beings
have ever written.
This presents a bit of a problem for the speaker of this poem, of
course, who struggles to find adequate means for expressing the
bird’s beauty in human terms ("What is most like thee?" the
speaker asks). The reader gets the sense that no verse could
fully grasp the magnificence of the skylark, and thus feels that
human beings—and artists in particular—have much to learn
from the bird.
The speaker even directly calls on the bird as a sort of mentor
figure, imploring, "Teach us [...] What sweet thoughts are
thine." The speaker closes the poem by asking again, "Teach
me half the gladness" that the skylark has known, so that the
speaker, too, might share such melodious chaos with the world.
The speaker believes that if this is achieved, the world will
listen to such verse, just as the speaker listens to the skylark.
As an artist, the speaker feels kinship with the skylark and
believes that the bird can offer unparalleled insight into pure
expression—art with the ability to powerfully illuminate truths in
the way that human communication, burdened by sadness and
artificiality, cannot.
 Summary and Explanation

Lines 1-5

The poet calls the skylark a cheerful and happy spirit. The skylark is not a bird
but a spirit because, flying at a great height,it is not visible. The poet offers a
warm welcome to the skylark. He joyfully greets the skylark.The skylark sings
spontaneous songs from somewhere near the sky. It sings sweet melodies
which express the feelings and emotions of its heart. A continuous stream of
rich music flows naturally from the skylark. The skylark sings effortlessly and
without any previous preparation.

Lines 6-10

The sky-lark leaps upward from the earth and flies higher and higher into the
blue sky. It flies up into the blue sky like a cloud of fire rising upward. It keeps
singing while flying, and it keeps flying while singing. It keeps flying and
singing simultaneously.

Lines 11-15

The sun is just rising. It is still below the horizon, and it shoots its arrows as if
they were flashes of lightning. The clouds in the eastern sky look bright and
radiant because of the light of the rising sun. It is at this time that the skylark
begins its upward flight. The skylark is a happy soul that has shaken off its
earthly coil and has set out on a journey toward heaven. (The skylark leaving
the earth and soaring upward is like a soul that has shed its mortal body and is
on its way to heaven. The expression “unbodied joy” means a happy soul that
has shaken off its mortal body).

Lines 16-20

As the skylark flies upwards, the pale and purple twilight of the morning seems
to melt away, giving place to the white light of the rising sun. The skylark
becomes invisible as it flies higher and higher. For this reason it is like a star
which shines in the sky invisibly during the day – time. The flight of the skylark
becomes known to us by its loud and joyous singing.
Lines 21-25

During the night, the moon sheds its white light upon the earth. But this bright
light begins to fade with the coming of the morning. In the light of the
morning, the moonlight fades away. Although the moon now becomes almost
invisible, yet we are aware that the moon is still in the sky. In the same way, the
skylark is invisible to our eyes, but listening to its music, we are aware of its
presence in the sky.

Lines 26-30

The whole earth and the whole atmosphere above seem to be filled to
overflowing with the song of the skylark. When the moon emerges from behind
a single cloud in the sky, the moonlight fills the whole earth as well as the sky.
The earth and the sky are flooded with the music of the skylark in the same way
as they are flooded with the bright light of the moon.

Lines 31-35

The real nature of the skylark is not known to us. It is not even possible for us
to think of anything that closely resembles the skylark. As it flies up and up, it
sends a shower of rich music to us on the earth. The music flowing from the
skylark is much more pleasant and delightful even than the bright and lustrous
rain-drops falling from the clouds.

Lines 36-40

The invisible skylark may be compared to a poet who is hidden from the public
gaze by the originality and obscurity of his ideas. The poet’s message to
mankind is so original and new that people cannot understand it. But the poet
is not discouraged. He goes on singing his songs and expressing his ideas
through those songs. Ultimately his songs do begin to produce an effect upon
the people. The poet, by his perseverance and persistence, compels people to
listen to him and to try to understand him. At last, the world is moved to
sympathy with the poet’s hopes and fears which were previously not
understood by the people. The idea is that the skylark keeps singing till we are
moved to admiration for its songs,even though the skylark is invisible.
Lines 41-45

The skylark is here compared to a young damsel of high birth. This girl is
supposed to be residing in a palace tower where she sings songs of love. She is
singing these songs to attain some relief by giving an outlet to the intensity of
her passion of love. Her songs are as sweet as her passion of love. The girl
herself is not visible to outsiders because she is confined in the tower. But the
songs of the girl overflow her apartment, and are heard by people outside. The
skylark too is invisible to our eyes, but the sweet music of the skylark is audible
to us. (The simile in these lines is highly suggestive and romantic).

Lines 46-50

The skylark is like a beautiful, shining glow-worm flying about among the dew
covered grass and flowers. The glow worm itself is invisible because it is hidden
by the grass and leaves of plants. But we can recognize the glow – worm by the
light that it scatters around itself. In the same way we cannot see the skylark in
the aerial regions above, but we are conscious of the presence of the skylark on
account of the sweet music which comes from it.

Lines 51-55

We may not be able to see arose which is wrapped up in its green leaves, but
we shall certainly become conscious of it because of its sweet scent. When the
warm wind blows, it seems to rob the rose of the rose’s sweet fragrance.
Indeed, the wind which steals the rose’s sweetness becomes so heavy with that
fragrance that its movement becomes slow. The physical presence of the
skylark is not visible to our eyes, but we become aware of the presence of the
skylark because of its sweet songs which are loud enough to reach our ears.

Lines 56-60

The music of the skylark surpasses in beauty, joy, and freshness everything that
could ever claim these qualities. The music of the skylark is more fresh and
joyful than the sound of rain falling on the bright grass in spring. It is more
joyful and fresh than flowers which have been awakened from their torpor by
rain.
Lines 61-65

The poet would like to learn from the skylark which is perhaps a bird, perhaps a
spirit, what sweet thoughts give rise to its joyful songs. The music of the skylark
is full of a rapturous joy which seems to have a divine quality. No praise of love
or wine has ever been so rapturous or joyful as the songs of the skylark.

Lines 66-70

As compared with the skylark’s singing, a wedding song or a song of victory

would seem to be meaningless. The note of joy in the songs of the skylark is
much greater than in those other songs. By comparison with the skylark’s song,
other songs seem to suffer from some deficiency which we cannot define.

Lines 71-75

The poet wants to know what the source of the skylark’s happiness is. What it is
that makes this bird so happy? Does the skylark derive its happiness from the
sight of some wonderful objects of Nature like fields,waves, mountains, the
changing shape of the sky, and plains ? If so, where are those objects of Nature
which make the skylark so happy, because ordinary fields or waves or
mountains cannto be a source of such extraordinary joy. Is the skylark so happy
because of its great love for its fellow-creatures ? Is the skylark so happy
because it has never known any sorrow or grief ?

Lines 76-80

The skylark feels so exquisitely happy that there can be no question of its ever
feeling lazy or indolent. Nor does the skylark ever experience a feeling of the
faintest irritation. This happiness of the skylark is absolutely unadulterated. The
skylark does not experience the disillusionment or disgust which human beings
invariably experience after an excessive enjoyment of the pleasures of love. The
skylark does enjoy the pleasure of love, but in its case the feeling of
disillusionment or disgust does not occur.

Lines 81-85
Both in its waking and sleeping hours, the skylark must be seeing truer visions
of the nature and significance of death than human beings can. For human
beings, death is an impenetrable mystery. The thought of death, therefore, not
only puzzles and baffles human beings, but also depresses and saddens them.
But the skylark has perhaps a truer and deeper knowledge of the mystery of
death. And that is why the skylark is so happy and can produce such
continuous and rapturous music.

Lines 86-90

The life of human beings is full of disappointments and frustrations. Human

beings have desires and longings which remain unfulfilled. Whether they look
back to their past or they look forward to their future,they feel an intense
desire for what they have not been able to achieve and for what they will not
be able to attain. There is an element of pain mingled even with their most
genuine laughter. They can never enjoy unadulterated happiness. The sweetest
songs of human beings are those that are full of sorrow and grief. The songs of
the skylark, on the contrary, are an expression of pure joy.

Lines 91-95

Human happiness is marred by feeling of hatred, pride, fear, etc. Human beings
are born to suffer sorrows and griefs and to shed tears over their misery.
Suppose that it were possible for human beings to cast off hatred, pride and
fear from their hearts, and suppose that there were no sorrows in the life of
human beings to make them weep. Even then they would not be able to enjoy
that supreme happiness which the skylark enjoys.

Lines 96-100

The skylark is scornful of the earth. That is why it flies in the higher regions
above. If a poet could acquire the skylark’s musical skill he would be able to
produce rapturous songs like the skylark. All joyful songs known to mankind
and all the available musical knowledge and instructions contained in books
would be inadequate for a poet to produce songs of pure and perfect joy. Only
by acquiring the skylark’s musical skill can any poet equal the joyful singing of
the skylark.
Lines 101-15

If the skylark could communicate to Shelley even half of its joy, Shelley would
feel inspired to write poems that would compete with the songs of the skylark.
The world would then listen attentively to Shelley’s poems just as Shelley is
now listening to the songs of the skylark. All that Shelley needs is the feeling of
ecstasy which the skylark experiences. (What he means to say is that his
awareness of the tragedy of human life makes it impossible for him to write
poems expressive of a rapturous joy.

Analysis
In this poem, Shelley dwells upon the sweet and rapturous singing of the
skylark. The music of the skylark has been idealized by Shelley. The poet wants
to know what it is that inspires the skylark to sing such melodious and ecstatic
strains. He contrasts the sorrows and sufferings of mankind with the
unspeakable joy of the bird. If it were possible for the poet to experience the
gladness of the skylark, he would be able to sing songs as sweet and delightful
as those of the bird itself.

The poem is remarkable for its abundance of similes, each of which is a picture
in itself. The skylark climbs higher and higher in the sky “like a cloud of fire”
(Line 8). The skylark floats and runs “like an unbodied joy whose race is just
begun” (Line 15).

The skylark is unseen “like a star of heaven/In the broad daylight” (Lines 18-19).
The skylark is like a poet hidden in the light of thought, like a high-born
maiden singing love-songs in a palace tower, like a golden glow-worm invisibly
scattering its light among the flowers and grass, like a rose hidden by its own
green leaves and filling the air with its scent. The similes in this poem are
unsurpassed for their romantic charm and beauty. Each simile brings a separate
picture before the mind. These similes constitute a rich feast for the senses. We
gloat over each simile with an epicurean delight.

This poem is a marvel of music and melody. The sweetness of the poem,
combined with its other qualities makes it a lyrical masterpiece. The music of
the poem is simply irresistible. The following stanza may be quoted not only for
its musical quality but for the truth that it contains:
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.
There is an intensity of feeling throughout the poem. It is a passionate
utterance. The poet’s heart is overflowing with the flood of emotion. The note
of longing and yearning, so characteristic of many of Shelley’s poems, is to be
found in this poem also. The following stanza in which the poet makes an
appeal to the skylark, is an illustration:

Teach me half the gladness

That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow
The world should listen then as I am listening now.
All Shelley’s lyrics possess a spontaneous quality. This poem is no exception. It
seems to have come directly from the writer’s heart. It appears to have been
written naturally and effortlessly. It is a pure effusion. It is a superb example of
Shelley’s lyrical gift.