ODE TO A SKYLARK
. ......P.B.Shelley.....
"To a Skylark" is a poem completed by Percy Bysshe Shelley in late June 1820 and published accompanying his lyrical drama Prometheus Unbound by Charles and James Collier in London.
It was inspired by an evening walk in the country near Livorno, Italy, with his wife Mary Shelley, and describes the appearance and song of a skylark they come upon.[2] Mary Shelley described the event that inspired Shelley to write "To a Skylark": "In the Spring we spent a week or two near Leghorn (Livorno) ... It was on a beautiful summer evening while wandering among the lanes whose myrtle hedges were the bowers of the fire-flies, that we heard the carolling of the skylark."
TEXT:
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 day-light
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 overflow'd.
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 a{:e}real hue
Among the flowers and grass, which screen it from the view:
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:
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.
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,
Match'd 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.
WORD NOTES:
1. Shelley viewed the Skylark as...
A spirit
2. Hail to thee blithe spirit"- here the word blithe means...
Joyful
3. "In profuse strain of unpremeditated art" - refers to...
Spontaneous song of the Skylark.
4. "In profuse strain of unpremeditated art"..Profuse strain means..
Melodious Song.
5. " Like a cloud of fire/ the blue deep thou singer"- who is reffered to as the cloud of fire?
The Skylark
6. " Like a cloud of fire/ the blue deep thou singer"- blue deep refers to..
The vast sky.
7. " In the golden lightening / Of the sunken sun" - here sunken sun means..
Rising sun.
8. "Like a star of heaven"- who is like a star of heaven?
The Skylark
9. "Thou does float and run"- who floats and run?
Skylark
10. "Like an unbodied joy...." Unbodied joy means...
Great joy./ Ecstatic joy.
11. Why is the Skylark compared to a star of heaven?
The Skylark remains unseen in the broad daylight like a star.
12. " The pale purple even/ Melta around thy flight"- here the Skylark is compared to...
The evening sky.
13. " But yet I hear thy shrill daylight" shrill daylight refers to the
Song of the Skylark
14. What does mean by unpremeditated?
Not planned out in advance.
15. Unbeholden means...
Unseen.
16. The word vernal refers to which season?
Spring.
17. What does those heavy winged thieves refers to?
Bees.
18. What is hidden in the " dell of dew"?
Glow worm.
19. Who is hidden away in a tower in Shelley's to a Skylark?
A maiden
20. Shelley wishes to the Skylark to ...
Teach him half of the source of its joy.
21. Shelley compared the Skylark to...
A glow worm. A poet. A princess
22. What melta around the Skylark?
The pale purple evening.
23. The glow worm is living in ....
A Dell of dew.
24. In To a Skylark" - what literary device did Shelley use for five straight stanza?
Asyndeton
25. What is the speaker's request in the last stanza of the poen?
26. With what artistic drive Shelley wrote To a Skylark?
Impulse.
Next page: Ode to Autumn
Previous Page:
Home Page:
. ......P.B.Shelley.....
"To a Skylark" is a poem completed by Percy Bysshe Shelley in late June 1820 and published accompanying his lyrical drama Prometheus Unbound by Charles and James Collier in London.
It was inspired by an evening walk in the country near Livorno, Italy, with his wife Mary Shelley, and describes the appearance and song of a skylark they come upon.[2] Mary Shelley described the event that inspired Shelley to write "To a Skylark": "In the Spring we spent a week or two near Leghorn (Livorno) ... It was on a beautiful summer evening while wandering among the lanes whose myrtle hedges were the bowers of the fire-flies, that we heard the carolling of the skylark."
TEXT:
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 day-light
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 overflow'd.
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 a{:e}real hue
Among the flowers and grass, which screen it from the view:
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:
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.
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,
Match'd 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.
WORD NOTES:
- Blithe - Joyous
- Unpremeditated- Spontaneous / Not planned in advance
- Profuse strain - Melodious Song
- Blue deep - Vast sky
- Sunken sun - Rising sun
- Unbeholden- Unseen
- Sprite - Refreshing rain shower
1. Shelley viewed the Skylark as...
A spirit
2. Hail to thee blithe spirit"- here the word blithe means...
Joyful
3. "In profuse strain of unpremeditated art" - refers to...
Spontaneous song of the Skylark.
4. "In profuse strain of unpremeditated art"..Profuse strain means..
Melodious Song.
5. " Like a cloud of fire/ the blue deep thou singer"- who is reffered to as the cloud of fire?
The Skylark
6. " Like a cloud of fire/ the blue deep thou singer"- blue deep refers to..
The vast sky.
7. " In the golden lightening / Of the sunken sun" - here sunken sun means..
Rising sun.
8. "Like a star of heaven"- who is like a star of heaven?
The Skylark
9. "Thou does float and run"- who floats and run?
Skylark
10. "Like an unbodied joy...." Unbodied joy means...
Great joy./ Ecstatic joy.
11. Why is the Skylark compared to a star of heaven?
The Skylark remains unseen in the broad daylight like a star.
12. " The pale purple even/ Melta around thy flight"- here the Skylark is compared to...
The evening sky.
13. " But yet I hear thy shrill daylight" shrill daylight refers to the
Song of the Skylark
14. What does mean by unpremeditated?
Not planned out in advance.
15. Unbeholden means...
Unseen.
16. The word vernal refers to which season?
Spring.
17. What does those heavy winged thieves refers to?
Bees.
18. What is hidden in the " dell of dew"?
Glow worm.
19. Who is hidden away in a tower in Shelley's to a Skylark?
A maiden
20. Shelley wishes to the Skylark to ...
Teach him half of the source of its joy.
21. Shelley compared the Skylark to...
A glow worm. A poet. A princess
22. What melta around the Skylark?
The pale purple evening.
23. The glow worm is living in ....
A Dell of dew.
24. In To a Skylark" - what literary device did Shelley use for five straight stanza?
Asyndeton
25. What is the speaker's request in the last stanza of the poen?
26. With what artistic drive Shelley wrote To a Skylark?
Impulse.
Next page: Ode to Autumn
Previous Page:
Home Page:
Thanks for sharing such a nice content. Your post was really good. Some ideas can be made. About English literature. Further, you can access this site to learn more about To a Skylark
ReplyDeleteRoulette Live - Casino Site | luckyclub.live
ReplyDeleteRoulette Live. luckyclub The most popular and fun live dealer roulette table. As well as being a part of the best casino games and roulette players
theora0ac-ne_1999 Kim Chandler https://wakelet.com/wake/nP7kTal9bzYAOsFXEV62U
ReplyDeletedielowloudons