Analysis of "To a Skylark"

718 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay on romanticism in english literature

Percy Bysshe Shelley, who wrote To a Skylark, believed that nature was more beautiful without human interference. This belief derived from being an anarchist. An anarchist is someone who believes man should not have power and that the government is the epitome of our destruction. This point of view comes across in the power when he uses nature and its God-given splendors as inspiration.
Although nature is grandiose, it is perceived as untamable, which is one of the elements of Romanticism. The skylark is a motif of this because it personifies nature’s freedom and man’s inability to control it. “Like a rose embowered, it its own green leaves…”(Shelley lines 51-52). The word “own” stands out in this passage because it shows how nature creates its own destiny when it is not adulterated by humans. The skylark is a specimen that is both untamable and agrestial.
Shelley viewed the skylark as nature’s “blithe spirit”(line 1). The manner in which the bird flies and sings is angelic. Its effect on nature’s beauty is worth more than any human, based on the perspective of Percy Shelley. “All the earth and air with thy voice is loud, as when night brave, from one only cloud the moon rains of her beams, and Heaven is overflowed”(lines 26-30). The skylark’s voice is considered an art of nature. It is even compared to Heaven, which is an eliminating compliment due to its virtuous qualities.
Nothing can compare or change the beauty of nature around us; the skylark cannot be changed either. “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!”(lines 96-100) In this section of the poem, Shelley compared the skylark’s singing to a treasu...

... middle of paper ...

...f nature and what it is like to not be controlled by the grip of society.
Thus, To a Skylark incorporates elements of romanticism, figures of speech, and conveys a theme of freedom in nature. He tried to get people to understand his view that the world and nature’s beauty are better than anything one could imagine. “The world should listen then, as I am listening now”(line 105). In the last line of the poem, Shelley says that he finally started listening to the skylark and its call for humans to see the beauty in nature. Although this issue has continued to nowadays, we can expound Shelley’s idea that we, as humans, impact nature. The skylark’s wondrous wings, its blissful song, and cry for people to care for nature all culminate to a single word: freedom. Freedom is living limitless, without being controlled, with endless opportunities to see nature as it is.

Show More
Related

  • Literary Analysis Of 'Ode To A Nightingale And Bright Star'

    1443 Words  | 3 Pages

    Keats’ poetry explores many issues and themes, accompanied by language and technique that clearly demonstrates the romantic era. His poems ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ and ‘Bright Star’ examine themes such as mortality and idealism of love. Mortality were common themes that were presented in these poems as Keats’ has used his imagination in order to touch each of the five senses. He also explores the idea that the nightingale’s song allows Keats to travel in a world of beauty. Keats draws from mythology and christianity to further develop these ideas. Keats’ wrote ‘Ode To A Nightingale’ as an immortal bird’s song that enabled him to escape reality and live only to admire the beauty of nature around him. ‘Bright Star’ also discusses the immortal as Keats shows a sense of yearning to be like a star in it’s steadfast abilities. The visual representation reveal these ideas as each image reflects Keats’ obsession with nature and how through this mindset he was able

    Read More

  • Romanticism: Human's Connection With Nature In 'Snowbound'

    1599 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout the Romanticism period, human’s connection with nature was explored as writers strove to find the benefits that humans receive through such interactions. Without such relationships, these authors found that certain aspects of life were missing or completely different. For example, certain authors found death a very frightening idea, but through the incorporation of man’s relationship with the natural world, readers find the immense utility that nature can potentially provide. Whether it’d be as solace, in the case of death, or as a place where one can find oneself in their own truest form, nature will nevertheless be a place where they themselves were derived from. Nature is where all humans originated,

    Read More

  • The Poet With His Face In His Hands By Mary Oliver Analysis

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the

    Read More

  • Summary Of Texts In Time: Comparing Frankenstein And Blade Runner

    781 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...on of the word ‘divine’ gives nature Godly status and implies it has healing powers. A reverent, idealistic attitude towards nature again shows the influence of Romanticism on Shelley’s writing.

    Read More

  • Literary Devices in Updike's “The Great Scarf of Birds”

    682 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his poem “The Great Scarf of Birds”, John Updike uses a flock of birds to show that man can be uplifted by observing nature. Updike’s conclusion is lead up to with the beauty of autumn and what a binding spell it has on the two men playing golf. In Updike’s conclusion and throughout the poem, he uses metaphors, similes, and diction to show how nature mesmerizes humans.

    Read More

  • Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus

    901 Words  | 2 Pages

    While immersed in its beauty, Victor and his creation escaped worldly problems and entered a supernatural bliss. In short, Shelley presents nature as very powerful. It has the power to put the humanity back into man when the unnatural world has stripped him of his moral fiber. In comparison to the pure beauty of nature, the unnatural acts of man are far more emphasized; therefore, the reader is clearly aware of man’s faults and their repercussions. Unfortunately, not even the power of nature could balance the work of man: “the cup of life was poisoned forever.”

    Read More

  • Romanticism

    346 Words  | 1 Pages

    Romantics often emphasized the beauty, strangeness, and mystery of nature. Romantic writers expressed their intuition of nature that came from within. The key to this inner world was the imagination of the writer; this frequently reflected their expressions of their inner essence and their attitude towards various aspects of nature. It was these attitudes that marked each writer of the Romantic period as a unique being. These attitudes are greatly reflected in the poem “When I Heard the Learned Astronomer” by Walt Whitman.

    Read More

  • Discuss the different relationships between man and nature in Cormac McCarthy’s ‘All the Pretty Horses’ and in a selection on poems by William Wor...

    887 Words  | 2 Pages

    In ‘All the Pretty Horses’ Luis states ‘among men there was no such communion as among horses and the notion that men can be understood at all was probably an illusion’, by this he means the relationship man has with nature is totally unique, it is sacred; the relationship between men is a misapprehension. In some respects the reader may agree with the statement because it is true, man’s relationship with animals and nature is fairly simple compared to man’s relationship amongst each other which is far more complex due to conflict of opinion and other complications. John Grady Cole’s relationship with Alejandra faced much turmoil and complication, one of the biggest issues they faced was the fact Alejandra’s family condemned their relationship and forbid her to be with him. To a certain extent John’s romance with Alejandra mirrors Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in respects to their forbidden love, however their story does not end in tragedy. Wordsworth shows nature to be more of a companion for man in ‘The Solitary Reaper’. The woman reaps the crops alone in the field singing with a voice so ‘thrilling’ it resonates ‘Long after it was heard no more’. Although she is lonely, she is wholly reliant upon the sustenance she receives and the relationship she has with nature. The poet proceeds to compare her to the Cuckoo and the Nightingale stating ‘No Nightingale did ever chaunt more welcome notes to weary bands’ being compared to birds with such beautiful song surely displays her oneness with nature. Unlike the ‘maiden’ Victor tries to control and dominate nature, this resentment could stem from the fact his mother died of the fever, making him go to extreme lengths in constructing this figure from different body parts to create a cre...

    Read More

  • Whitman's Interpretation of Emerson

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    Walt Whitman embraces this power to use nature in his work "Song of Myself." As Emerson's principle outlined, Whitman was able to take images of nature and make them represent something surprising, new, and sometimes slightly obscene. Emerson discusses the idea of obscene images in nature taking on acc...

    Read More

  • Eagle Poem

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the poem by Joy Harjo called “Eagle Poem,” Harjo talks about prayer and life and how they revolve around mother-nature. She suggests that while being one with nature, we feel we are in a place in which we haven’t imagined and the things in which we would love to do in that magnificent and calming place. After one reads the poem, he/she enjoys the lyrical type of it. This is because “Eagle Poem” sticks to one idea and extends it throughout the entire poem. For instance, it talks about prayer, nature, and animals from start to finish.

    Read More

  • Spirituality in John Greenleaf Whittier's The Worship of Nature

    1528 Words  | 4 Pages

    The title of the poem is an indication that the reader should prepare himself or herself for some sort of spiritual experience. Whittier uses the word "worship" to title his poem because by the end of the poem the reader will learn that there is much more to the natural world than water, land, and sky. The poem starts with the birth or creation of nature. Whittier explains to his readers that the natural world has existed since God created it. He compares the creation of nature to music. This stanza is very appealing to the senses because nature is musical. The insects, winds, and birds are all a part of this "song" that "has never died away". The poet reminds readers of this very important idea because we as humans have a tendency to forget the value and importance of nature. The second stanza takes readers beyond the initial creation and introduces readers to the many purposes that nature serves. Whittier explains that "prayer is made and praise is given." Personification is an important tool used in this poem. Obviously nature cannot really pray or give praise, but the various functions of nature in this world give the illusion that it does pay homage to a higher being. For instance the lines in the second stanza, "The ocean looketh up to heaven, /And mirrors every star" says that the ocean is a mirror for heaven. If we look into the deep sea, we are in essence looking into a reflected image of heaven. Other instances when Whittier uses personification in this way are the first and second lines in the third stanza, "Its waves are kneeling on the strand/As kneels the human knee". Whittier tells his readers that just as man bends his knee to show respect to God so the ocean waves bend when they reach the shore as a sign of respect.

    Read More

  • The Search for Immortality in On the Beach at Night and Sunday Morning

    698 Words  | 2 Pages

    Both poets present readers with characters questioning the apparent transience of nature. Whitman's young girl weeps to see the black "burial-clouds that lower victorious soon to devour all," (line 12) just as Stevens' young woman is saddened "when the birds are gone, and their warm fields/Return no more" (lines 49-50). These characters, unable to grasp the entirely of the cycle of mortality, are dismayed by earthly loss they continually observe.

    Read More

  • A Critical Analysis of Judith Wright's 'the Killer'

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the first stanza, the poet seems to be offering a conventional romanticized view of Nature:

    Read More

  • Percy Bysshe Shelley Defends Poetry

    1594 Words  | 4 Pages

    Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “A Defence of Poetry.” The Longman Anthology: British Literature: Volume 2A – The Romantics and Their Contemporaries. Ed. David Damrosch. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc., 2003. 801-810.

    Read More

  • 18th and 19th century view on nature

    359 Words  | 1 Pages

    Through the poems of Blake and Wordsworth, the meaning of nature expands far beyond the earlier century's definition of nature. "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." The passion and imagination portrayal manifest this period unquestionably, as the Romantic Era. Nature is a place of solace where the imagination is free to roam. Wordsworth contrasts the material world to the innocent beauty of nature that is easily forgotten, or overlooked due to our insensitivities by our complete devotion to the trivial world. “But yet I know, where’er I go, that there hath passed away a glory from the earth.

    Read More

More about Analysis of "To a Skylark"

Open Document