How does Shelley relate the skylark’s song to his
own efforts to write poetry in “To a Skylark”?
Ans: In “To a Skylark”, the skylark is the symbol of eternal joy and beauty. It is Shelley’s metaphor for poetic expression. The poet idealizes the bird and describes the bird and its song through a series of similes. But he realizes the futility of capturing the bird’s superiority through comparisons because none of the images he devises, such as comparing the bird to a rainbow cloud or a glowworm is sufficient to convey the sheer, ecstatic joy that he feels when he listens to its song. It is this joy, the ‘sweet thoughts’ of the bird that Shelley wants to learn or internalize because the skylark’s joy is different from the joy felt by humans. -Learning how to capture such joy will enable him to incorporate such a feeling into his poetry and compose such melodious verses that the world around him would listen to him with rapt attention:
“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.”
Shelley thus recognizes what is special about the skylark’s song and speculates on what poetic success he would achieve if the ‘sweet thoughts’ of the bird are united with his poetic talent. He is of the idea that incorporating the power in nature into his poetry would make him write poetry as effective, as harmonious yet mad as the bird’s song.
