***

Introduction

“Ode to the West Wind” is an ode, written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819 near Florescent, Italy. It was
originally published in 1820 by Edmund Ollier and Charles in London. This poem is about the feelings of
the speaker’s inability to the people those who are in England because he stays in Italy so he decides to
write a poem through which he expresses the hope and whoever reads his poem will get an inspiration
so he uses the “wind” as the medium of “hope”. And this poem is critically analyzed by the wind’s
qualities and the relationship between the author and the wind.

Ode to West Wind Analysis

Shelley speaks to the west wind for four times in the first stanza. In general winter season portrays early
season especially in European countries because during that time they cannot come out and enjoys with
nature but there is something different than the poet elevates the wind as the “breath of autumn“.

Eventually, a tree has both fresh and dead leaves but here the wind sweeps away only the dead leaves.
Generally, a dead leaf looks in black or brown in color but here very strangely those dead leaves are in
yellow, pale and hectic red color.

The wind is described as carrying seeds because it represents here as dead leaves, how the dead leaves
are spreads over graveyard during the autumn season as the same this wind carrying the seeds to the
grave like places in the ground, and those seeds will stay until the spring wind comes and revives them.
How true lovers live even after their death as the same here even if the west wind buries the seeds into
the ground but the spring wind has the power to regenerate the seeds. The way a Shepherd drives sheep
as the same spring wind gives rebirth the dead leaves.

The speaker exalts wind as “wild spirit “which moves all over the places“. The west wind compares as
both “Destroyer and Preserver ” I would like to compare the west wind to “Jesus Christ ” because in the
Old Testament he portrayed himself as a “Punishing God” but in the New Testament he portrayed
himself as a “Forgiving God” even to the people who killed him brutally. Thus, the winter brings death
but also makes possible the registration of spring.
Second, the speaker extols the wind is spread through clouds the way dead leaves float in a stream.
Leaves walk out from the branches of trees and these clouds walk out from the “branches” of the sky
and the sea which joins together like “angels of rain and lightning” to create clouds and weather
systems. The storm which the west wind brings is spread through the airy “blue surface ” of the West
wind in the same way Maenad a savage woman who hangs out with the God Dionysus in Greek
mythology. The speaker uses an unpleasant metaphor to describe the power of the West wind.

The wind is described as a ‘drige’ a mournful song, to mark the years which have got over. Thus, the poet
has some kind of an unexpressed love towards wind so he wants the wind to hear him again. Shelley tells
us about the peculiar exploits of the West wind. Usually, the sea gets dry during the summer time but
the here Mediterranean Sea has lain calm and still during the summer time too. During the vacation
time, ancient Romans come to Bride’s bay to spend their leisure time and it’s their holiday spot as well
but the west wind has woken the Mediterranean Sea and also making the sea jerk.

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In addition, sea used to compare with “woman” but here Shelley compares the with the man. This shows
the unique style of Shelley. During the summertime, everyone feels sleepy so the Mediterranean has
seen in his dreams the old palaces and towers along with Baiae’bay those places are now overgrown
with plants so that they have become overwhelming.

The level of the Atlantic Ocean breaks itself into a different perspective for the west wind. The poet feels
that though the sea is big and huge it’s only subordinate to the west wind moreover if the sea gets waves
it is only because of the West wind’s superpowers.

The structure of the Atlantic ocean is something unstructured one because none can measure the depth
of this ocean inside of this there are different types of marine plants are there once they hear the sound
of the West wind as I mentioned before its one of the deep asylum ocean sounds cannot enter into the
water but the “west wind sound” goes into the ocean once they hear its sounds suddenly they “grow
grey with fear” and harming themselves in the process so that much superpower the west wind possess
within.

If a speaker wants to express about a famous person or tell about an interesting subject either that
speaker must be a scholar in that subject nor that the speaker personally close with the person whom
he/she going to express as well as here the speaker has a strong connectivity with the west wind. He
compromises himself by saying that he cannot be a leaf or a cloud but when he was young he had a
great lovely relationship with the west wind.

When he was young he felt that it was possible for him to be faster and more powerful than the
Westwind. The speaker openly expresses his desire towards the Westwind. He wishes that if were a
“dead leaf” or a ‘swift cloud’ the Westwind could carry him by his wave and the speak could felt
Westwind’s power and strength.

Here the speaker admits himself that if he could have been a leaf or cloud or feel young and powerful he
wouldn’t ask Westwind for help so he begs the Westwind to treat him as the Westwind treats the natural
objects like waves and leaves and clouds. He says that though he falls upon the thorns and weighed him
down and bowed his spirit which started out “tameless and swift and proud ” just like the Westwind
itself.

Finally, Shelley asks the Westwind for one thing that he wants the wind to turn him into “lyre“. This
desire is related to the aeolian harp, the specialty of this instrument is that music will be arising from the
action of the wind but the only thing that the instrument needs to put out in the breeze of nature. When
the wind touches the trees they start to speak with each other perhaps that sound gives fear but it will
nice hear.

As the same the speaker portrays as an instrument so he wants the west wind to touch him by its wind
so that the speaker will play the music whenever the wind touches him. The speaker and the trees both
are in the process of losing their self but that does not matter rather if the wind takes them as it’s
instrumented they will make sweet melancholic music.

The speaker changes the methods of asking the wind to play him like an instrument rather he asks the
wind to become him. He wants to get the whole spirit of the wind within him so he wants to replace his
spirit with the wind’s spirit. Shelley compares his thoughts to the dead leaves. He says that the Westwind
perhaps takes his ideas and thoughts to the all over places it goes as it takes the “dead leaves” even if
the thoughts are garbage at least the garbage can fertilize something better.

The speaker got another metaphor but this time he describes his mouth as a “trumpet” through which
the wind will blow about his own greatness. “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” Birth and death
is something the wheel of the human life because this is how God has created the world. Death and
decay cannot come to an end instead it gives another birth to the world.

As the same winter and spring cannot sail on the same boat because winter is the symbol of death and
decay and spring is for rebirth and revival. The speaker feels himself decaying there is nothing new but
the fact is whoever born as-as human being and born with flesh and blood has to decay and die one day.

***

 Percy Bysshe Shelley Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley

In this poem, Ode to the West Wind, Percy Shelley creates a speaker that seems to worship the wind. He
always refers to the wind as “Wind” using the capital letter, suggesting that he sees it as his god. He
praises the wind, referring to it’s strength and might in tones similar to the Biblical Psalms which worship
God. He also refers to the Greek God, Dionysus. The speaker continues to praise the wind, and to
beseech it to hear him. When he is satisfied that the wind hears him, he begs the wind to take him away
in death, in hopes that there will be a new life waiting for him on the other side.

Ode to the West Wind Analysis

Canto 1

Stanza 1

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,



In the opening stanza, the speaker appeals to the wild West Wind. The use of capital letters for “West”
and “Wind” immediately suggests that he is speaking to the Wind as though it were a person. He calls
the wind the “breath of Autumn’s being”, thereby further personifying the wind and giving it the human
quality of having breath. He describes the wind as having “unseen presence” which makes it seem as
though he views the wind as a sort of god or spiritual being. The last line of this stanza specifically refers
to the wind as a spiritual being that drives away death and ghosts.

Stanza 2

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,

Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

This stanza describes the dead Autumn leaves. They are not described as colorful and beautiful, but
rather as a symbol of death and even disease. The speaker describes the deathly colors “yellow” “black”
and “pale”. Even “hectic red” reminds one of blood and sickness. He describes the dead and dying leaves
as “Pestilence stricken multitudes”. This is not a peaceful nor beautiful description of the fall leaves.
Rather, the speaker seems to see the fall leaves as a symbol of the dead, the sick, and the dying. The
wind then comes along like a chariot and carries the leaves “to their dark wintry bed”, which is clearly a
symbol of a grave.

Stanza 3

The wingèd seeds, where they lie cold and low,

Each like a corpse within its grave, until

Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

The speaker continues the metaphor of the leaves as the dead by explaining that the wind carries them
and “winged seeds” to their graves, “where they lie cold and low”. The then uses a simile to compare
each leaf to “a corpse within its grave”. But then, part way through the second line, a shift occurs. The
speakers says that each is like a corpse “until” the wind comes through, taking away the dead, but
bringing new life. The use of the word “azure” or blue, to describe the wind is in sharp contrast to the
colors used to describe the leaves.

Stanza 4

Her clarion o’er the dreaming earth, and fill

(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)

With living hues and odours plain and hill:

With this stanza, the speaker describes the wind as something which drives away death, burying the
dead, and bringing new life. It brings “living hues” and “ordours” which are filled with new life.

Stanza 5

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;

Destroyer and Preserver; hear, O hear!



Here, the speaker again appeals to the wind, calling it a “wild spirit” and viewing it as a spiritual being
who destroys and yet also preserves life. He is asking this spirit to hear his pleas. He has not yet made a
specific request of the wind, but it is clear that he views it as a powerful spiritual being which can hear
him.

Canto 2

Stanza 1

Thou on whose stream, ‘mid the steep sky’s commotion,

Loose clouds like Earth’s decaying leaves are shed,

Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,

Again, the speaker addresses the wind as a person, calling it the one who will “loose clouds” and shake
the leaves of the “boughs of Heaven and Ocean”. This reads almost as a Psalm, as if the speaker is
praising the wind for its power.

Stanza 2

Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread

On the blue surface of thine airy surge,

Like the bright hair uplifted from the head



Again, the speaker refers to the wind as a spiritual being more powerful than angels, for the angels “of
rain and lightening” are described as being “spread on the blue surface” of the wind. He then describes
these angels as being “like the bright hair” on the head of an even greater being.

Stanza 3

Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge

Of the horizon to the zenith’s height,

The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge

In this stanza, the speaker compares the wind to a “fierce Maenad” or the spiritual being that used to be
found around the Greek God, Dionysus. Remember, this is the being that was also described as having
hair like angels. Thus, the wind is described as a being like a god, with angels for hair. These angels of rain
and lightening reveal that a storm is on the way.

Stanza 4

Of the dying year, to which this closing night

Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre

Vaulted with all thy congregated might

The speaker then explains that the storm approaching is the impending doom of the dying year.
Stanza 5

Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere

Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: O hear!

The speaker then describes the wind as the bringer of death. He has already described it as the
Destroyer. Here, he describes it as one who brings “black rain and fire and hail..” Then, to end this Canto,
the speaker again appeals to the wind, begging that it would hear him.

Canto 3

Stanza 1

Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams

The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,

Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams,

To begin this Canto, the speaker describes the wind as having woken up the Mediterranean sea from a
whole summer of peaceful rest. The sea, here, is also personified.

Stanza 2
Beside a pumice isle in Baiae’s bay,

And saw in sleep old palaces and towers

Quivering within the wave’s intenser day,

With this stanza, the speaker simply implies that the sea was dreaming of the old days of palaces and
towers, and that he was “quivering” at the memory of an “intenser day”.

Stanza 3

All overgrown with azure moss and flowers

So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou

For whose path the Atlantic’s level powers

The speaker continues to describe the sea’s dreams as being of slower days, when everything was
overgrown with blue “moss and flowers”. Then, he hints that something is about to change when he
mentions to Atlantic’s “powers”.

Stanzas 4-5

Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below

The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear

The sapless foliage of the ocean, know

Thy voice, and suddenly grow grey with fear,

And tremble and despoil themselves: O hear!



This stanza is in reference to the sea’s reaction to the power of the wind. At the first sign of the strong
wind, the sea seems to “cleave” into “chasms” and “grow grey with fear” as they tremble at the power of
the wind. Again, this stanza reflects a Psalm in worship of a god so mighty that nature itself trembles in
its sight.

Canto 4

Stanza 1

If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;

If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;

A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share

Here, the speaker finally brings his attention to himself. He imagines that he were a dead leaf which the
wind might carry away, or a cloud which the wind might blow. He things about what it would be like to
be a wave at the mercy of the power of the wind.

Stanza 2

The impulse of thy strength, only less free

Than thou, O Uncontrollable! If even

I were as in my boyhood, and could be



The speaker stands in awe of the wondrous strength of the wind. It seems to act on “impulse” and its
strength is “uncontrollable”. He then mentions his own childhood.

Stanza 3

The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven,

As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed

Scarce seemed a vision; I would ne’er have striven

Here, the speaker seems to wonder whether the wind has gotten stronger since his childhood, or
whether he has simply become weaker. He thinks that when he was a boy, he may have been about to
“outstrip” the speed of the wind. And yet, his boyhood “seemed a vision”, so distant, and so long ago.
The speaker is clearly contrasting the strength of the wind to his own weakness that has come upon him
as he has aged.

Stanza 4

As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.

Oh! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!

I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

Here, the speaker finally comes to his request. Until now, he has been asking the wind to hear him, but
he has not made any specific requests. Now, he compares himself to a man “in prayer in [his] sore need”
and he begs the wind to “lift [him] as a wave, a leaf, a cloud”. He longs to be at the mercy of the wind,
whatever may come of it. In the final line, he refers to himself as one who is in the final stages of his life
when he says, “I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed”. Just like the wind swept away the dead leaves of
the Autumn, the speaker calls for the wind to sweep him away, old and decaying as he is.

Stanza 5

A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed

One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.

The speaker says that the weight of all of his years of life have bowed him down, even though he was
once like the wind, “tameless…swift, and proud”.

Canto 5

Stanza 1

Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:

What if my leaves are falling like its own!

The tumult of thy mighty harmonies

Again, the speaker begs the wind to make him be at its mercy. He wants to be like a lyre (or harp) played
by the wind. He wants to be like the dead leaves which fall to the ground when the wind blows.
Stanza 2

Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,

Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,

My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!

Here, the speaker asks the wind to come into him and make him alive. This is yet another reference to
the wind as a sort of god. In some religions, particularly the Christian religion, there is the belief that to
have new life, one must receive the Holy Spirit into his bodily being. This is precisely what the speaker is
asking the wind to do to him. He realizes that for this to happen, his old self would be swept away. That
is why he describes this as “sweet though in sadness”. But he asks the spirit of the wind to be his own
spirit, and to be one with him.

Stanza 3

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe

Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!

And, by the incantation of this verse,

The speaker asks the wind to “drive [his] dead thoughts over the universe” so that even as he dies,
others might take his thoughts and his ideas and give them “new birth”. He thinks that perhaps this
might even happen with the very words he is speaking now.
Stanza 4

Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth

Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!

Be through my lips to unawakened Earth

The speaker asks the wind to scatter his thoughts as “ashes and sparks” that his words might kindle a fire
among mankind, and perhaps awaken the sleeping earth.

Stanza 5

The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

The speaker has used spiritual and biblical references throughout the poem to personify the wind as a
god, but here he makes it a little more specific. When he says, “The trumpet of prophecy” he is
specifically referring to the end of the world as the Bible describes it. When the trumpet of prophecy is
blown, Christ is believed to return to earth to judge the inhabitants. The speaker asks the Wind to blow
that trumpet. Because of the speaker’s tone throughout the poem, it would make sense if this was the
speaker’s own personal trumpet, marking the end of his life. He wants the wind to blow this trumpet.
With the last two lines, the speaker reveals why he has begged the wind to take him away in death. He
says, “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” This reveals his hope that there is an afterlife for him.
He desperately hopes that he might leave behind his dying body and enter into a new life after his death.

***

To a Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley: Summary and Critical Analysis

Shelley being one of the greatest romantic poets of early nineteenth century was an uncompromising
rebel. He continued his struggle for the cause of individual liberty, social justice and peace. He wished to
bring social reforms by his inspiring and courageous works of literature. He dreamt of an ideal society in
which there should be no slavery and no exploitation. In this poem 'To a Skylark' he has addressed a
skylark (a little bird) that soars up at a great height and sings so sweetly that the world is enchanted and
bewitched by its sweetness.

P. B. Shelley (1792-1822)

P. B. Shelley (1792-1822)

The Skylark symbolizes high imagination, eternal happiness and harbinger of peace and progress. It is a
spirit. Though it is unseen, yet it pours forth profuse sweetness. It stands for idealism and newly built
society – free from corruption, exploitation and economic slavery. The Skylark’s sweet note and ideal
message spread everywhere in the atmosphere. It is heard by the poet who is highly impressed. He
boldly claims that the Skylark is a superior thing in the sky. The cloud, the stars, the moon, the sun – all
are left behind and the Skylark dominates by its excellent tune and soothing voice.

The poet himself does not know what the Skylark actually is. The mystery of the Skylark is still unsolved
to the poet. But he is sure of the fact that he can learn a message of welfare from it and can spread in
the world for recreation of the society. The poet had drawn beautiful comparison. In such comparison,
he has proved his imaginative quality and an extraordinary talent.

He has compared the beauty and sweetness of the Skylark to a highly born beautiful girl who lives in her
tower like palatial building and sings sweet love songs. Similarly, its comparison with a golden glow-
worm among the flowers and grass and with rose having soothing scent is excellent and befitting. The
poet is so confident about the sweetness and joy of Skylark’s song that he says that even the rainbow
clouds do not spread as bright drops as the presence of the Skylark spreads a rain of melody. In short the
music of the Skylark surpasses every pleasure of nature.

The poet wishes to get instruction and messages from the Skylark. So he asks it to teach him its sweet
thoughts. The poet is confident that the skylark is pouring out a flood of rapture which is divine.
This poem is one of the best lyrics of P. B. Shelley. It has a tragic feeling in it. The line, “Our sweetest
songs are those that tell of saddest thought” is very meaningful. It tells the philosophy of Shelley’s life.
Though the songs of Skylark are the sweetest yet they express saddest and most tragic thought.

The Skylark scorns the nasty habits of the earth and stands for bliss, joy and prosperity of the world. The
poet is of cosmopolitan outlook. He is restless to preach his idealism in the world. Therefore he earnestly
requests the Skylark to teach him the message.

Some critics say that P.B Shelley was not a practical man. He was far away from realism. So his Skylark
always flew higher and higher and did not come to the earth, like the Skylark of Wordsworth. On the
whole, this poem is Shelley’s one of the finest creations. The flow of art, the similes, the flight of
imagination and lyrical quality make this poem unparallel in romantic literature.

***

Percy Bysshe Shelley To a Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley

‘To a Skylark‘ by Percy Bysshe Shelley is a twenty-one stanza ode that is consistent in it’s 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 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 have 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 of To a Skylark

“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,” it is unplanned and beautiful.

Shelley is stunned by the music produced by the bird and entranced by it’s 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 a 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 such 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].”
The poem 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 the poem Shelley makes some additional observations. The bird is not stopping
it’s 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 it’s 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.

Th bird is ascending up towards the “golden lightening” of the sun. The sun is “sunken” or low on the
horizon, most likely setting for the day, giving the scene greater ambience 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 the poem 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 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
as 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 it’s 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 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. It’s joy it raining down “Among the flowers and grass,” it’s 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 it’s flowers and spread it’s
scent within the breeze. Quickly the “sweet” of the petals is 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 the poem 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 “Spirte” 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 out match 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 it’s 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 it’s 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 it’s 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.

The poem is in it’s 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 this piece 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, this piece 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?
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, of 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 official 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.