Percy Shelley

Reading Shelley’s “To a Sky-Lark,” I noticed that it was written very differently from any of his other works. The first 4 lines of the stanza short and then the 5th line of the stanza is longer than the rest but still works with Shelley’s rhyming scheme.

The speaker in Shelley’s poem (which is most likely himself) seems to be amazed by the amount of beauty and delight that the skylark has. The skylark flies higher and higher until it vanishes from sight but its beautiful song can still be heard. The skylark’s song is then compared to all things in nature that are stunning and how it can surpass any of their exquisiteness such as in lines 33-35 “From rainbow clouds there flow not Drops so bright to see As from they presence showers a rain of melody:” and also in lines 56-60 “Sound of vernal showers On the twinkling grass, Rain-awakened flowers, All that ever was, Joyous and clear and fresh, - they music doth surpass.”

In the 18th and 19th stanzas, Shelley expresses that men could never know the happiness that the skylark knows:

“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.

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” (404).

To me it seems that Shelley is almost saying that we are constantly looking to the future and looking to the past as if we are almost searching for the happiness that the skylark has in this one single moment. I also get a feeling that Shelley believes that without our sadness and pain we will not have any chance of coming close to the joy that encompasses the skylark. It is as if we have to learn from our troubles to obtain such happiness.

However, in the last stanza Shelley is still seeking the cause for such bliss:

"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” (404).

The poem ends with Shelley listening to the skylark and waiting to hear how the skylark is so inspired and for his ways of such joy. He is positive that just knowing half of what this marvelous bird knows would compel the world to listen just as he has listened.