“To a Skylark” Summary

“To a Skylark” Themes

• 

  The Majesty and Divinity of Nature

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• 

  The Limits of Human Communication

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “To a Skylark”

• Lines 1-5

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 6-10

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 11-15

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 16-20

  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,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-25

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 26-30

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 31-35

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 36-40

  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:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 41-45

  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:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 46-50

  Like a glow-worm golden
  In a dell of dew,
  Scattering unbeholden
  Its aëreal hue
  Among the flowers and grass, which screen it from the view:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 51-55

  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:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 56-60

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 61-65

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 66-70

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 71-75

  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?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 76-80

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 81-85

  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?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 86-90

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 91-95

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 96-100

  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!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 101-105

  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.

  

  

  

  

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“To a Skylark” Symbols

• 

  The Skylark

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• 

  Light and the Sky

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• 

  Water, Rain, and Floods

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“To a Skylark” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Anaphora

  

  

  

  

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• Apostrophe

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Rhetorical Question

  

  

  

  

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• Simile

  

  

  

  

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“To a Skylark” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Skylark
• Hail
• Blithe
• Profuse
• Strains
• Unpremeditated
• Unbodied
• Shrill
• Keen
• Silver sphere
• Narrow
• Unbidden
• Wrought
• Heeded
• Maiden
• Love-laden
• Bower
• Glow-worm
• Dell
• Unbeholden
• Aëreal
• Embower'd
• Deflower'd
• Vernal
• Surpass
• Sprite
• Rapture
• Hymeneal
• Vaunt
• Plain
• Ignorance
• Joyance
• Langour
• Satiety
• Deem
• Pine (for)
• Fraught
• Scorn
• Measure

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “To a Skylark”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“To a Skylark” Speaker

“To a Skylark” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “To a Skylark”

More “To a Skylark” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a live reading of Shelley's "To a Skylark."

  • Biography of the Poet — Take a deep dive into Shelley's life and works, courtesy of the Poetry Foundation.

  • An Introduction to British Romanticism — Learn more about the Romanticism, including its historical context, themes, and key contributors.

  • What's So Special About a Skylark? — Browse a summary of the skylark's defining features—such as its habitat, behavior, and conservation status—alongside images of the bird.

  • The Skylark's "Shrill Delight" — Listen to recording of a skylark's calls, layered over video footage of skylarks in their natural habitats.

  • Primary Sources — Take a look at original documents related to the poem, including an early printing, from the collection of the British Library.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley

  • England in 1819

  • Love’s Philosophy

  • Music, When Soft Voices Die

  • Mutability

  • Ode to the West Wind

  • Ozymandias

  • Song to the Men of England

  • Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples

  • The Question