To a Skylark (Shelley) - Percy Bysshe Shelley
A Radiant Tribute to Winged Imagination
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.
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 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 pale purple even
Melts around thy flight;
Like a star of Heaven
In the broad daylight
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?
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
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
Makes faint with too much sweet these heavy-wingéd 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,
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 chant,
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
Languor 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 we mortals dream,
Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal 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.
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.
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!
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.
Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “To a Skylark” celebrates the ethereal joy symbolized by a skylark’s song. Composed in 1820, the poem addresses the skylark as both a real bird and a metaphor for unbridled creativity and rapture. Shelley presents the skylark’s melody as transcendent—unlike any earthly sound, it seems free from the sorrows that weigh on human existence.
The poem is structured around rich comparisons, likening the skylark’s song to multiple sources of beauty or secret expression, such as a hidden poet, a maiden in her tower, a glow-worm, or a rose. These similes illustrate a quality that is simultaneously elusive and illuminating: the skylark dwells in a realm beyond mundane sorrow yet delivers an inspiring message through its melody.
Central to Shelley’s reflection is the tension between mortal limitations—where even our greatest joys can be tinged with sadness—and the skylark’s pure, unshadowed ecstasy. This highlights the Romantic motif of longing for a state of transcendence or heightened perception. Shelley hints that the bird’s music arises from knowledge or experience inaccessible to humankind. As if in awe, he beseeches the skylark to teach him “half the gladness” it must know.
By invoking nature in this way, “To a Skylark” underscores the Romantic ideal that the natural world can offer profound insights into beauty, creativity, and emotional freedom. Shelley’s soaring apostrophe to the skylark is not merely a celebration of avian song; it is also a philosophical investigation into the nature of happiness, inspiration, and the creative impulse. His final wish—“The world should listen then”—encapsulates the poet’s desire that human art, if imbued with the skylark’s fearless joy, might move hearts toward collective wonderment.
Ultimately, “To a Skylark” stands as one of Shelley’s finest lyrical achievements. Through vibrant imagery and emotive language, it captures an unmistakable longing to break free from life’s sorrow and embrace a purer, more exalted consciousness. The skylark thus becomes a timeless emblem of poetic transcendence, urging us to imagine what human creativity might be if it soared beyond all worldly care.
Key points
• The skylark symbolizes pure, unshadowed bliss—unaffected by human sorrow.
• Rich similes compare the bird’s song to hidden or mysterious sources of inspiration.
• Shelley’s plea reveals the Romantic longing to transcend mortal limitations.
• The poem celebrates nature’s capacity to spark creativity and unbridled joy.