TO A SKYLARK WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Ethereal minstrel! Pilgrim of the sky! Both with tl.y nest upon the dewy ground? Those quivering wings composed, that music still! Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood 10 Of harmony, with instinct more divine; Type of the wise who soar but never roam, NOTES AND QUESTIONS Biography. William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was born in the Cumberland Highlands of northern England. The beauty of this country had a great influence on him and his poetry. While still a young man he retired to the beautiful Lake region of northern England and here lived a simple life, depending almost entirely on Nature for companionship and inspiration. He was devoted to the cause of liberty; he believed firmly in the beauty and charm of the humble life. The simplicity and sincerity of his nature are revealed in his poems on birds and flowers. Although the subjects of Wordsworth's poems were taken from everyday, prosaic events and ideas, their structure is sometimes elaborate and intricate. He was a very deep and sincere thinker, and his writings have through them an emotional strain that is as unspoiled as his own life. Discussion. 1. To whom is the poet talking? 2. How do you picture him as he talks to the bird? 3. How do you imagine he said the words of the first line? 4. What claim has the skylark to the title “ethereal minstrel”? To the title "pilgrim of the sky”? 5. What questions does the poet ask the skylark? How did James Hogg answer these questions in the first stanza of his poem? 6. Read a line of Wordsworth's poem which tells where the nest is made. What words used by James Hogg show that he thought of the “dewy ground”? 7. The darkness of night hides the nightingale; what does Wordsworth say hides the skylark? 8. What habit makes the lark "true to Heaven”? What habit makes him "true to Home"? Which habit is a type of our longing to do good and great things? Which habit is a type of the faithful performance of common duties? 9. What feeling led Wordsworth to write this lyric? 10. You will enjoy hearing these lines read in class by & good reader. 11. Find in the Glossary the meaning of: ethereal; composed. Suggestions for Theme Topics 1. How an ideal has helped me. 2. The danger that in seeking an ideal we may neglect the real-the simple duties we owe to others in daily life. 3. Wordsworth aspired to write poetry that should express both truth and beauty; he has succeeded in this poem. TO A SKYLARK PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! Bird thou never wert, Pourest thy full heart Higher still and higher From the earth thou springest The blue deep thou wingest In the golden lightning Of the sunken sun, Thou dost float and run The pale purple even Melts around thy flight; In the broad daylight 1 Keen as are the arrows Of that silver sphere In the white dawn clear, All the earth and air With thy voice is loud, From one lonely cloud What thou art we know not; What is most like thee? Drops so bright to see Like a Poet hidden In the light of thought, Till the world is wrought Like a high-born maiden In a palace tower, Soul in secret hour Like a glow-worm golden In a dell of dew, Its aërial hue Like a rose embowered In its own green leaves, Till the scent it gives 6 Makes faint with too much sweet those heavy-wingéd thieves; Sound of vernal showers On the twinkling grass, All that ever was Teach us, Sprite or Bird, What sweet thoughts are thine; Praise of love or wine Chorus Hymeneal, Or triumphal chaunt, But an empty vaunt, What objects are the fountains Of thy happy strain? What shapes of sky or plain? With thy clear, keen joyance Languor cannot be; Never came near thee; Waking or asleep Thou of death must deem Than we mortals dream- We look before and after, And pine for what is not; With some pain is fraught; Yet if we could scorn Hate and pride and fear; Not to shed a tear, Better than all measures Of delightful sound, That in books are found, Teach me half the gladness That thy brain must know, From my lips would flow, NOTES AND QUESTIONS Biography. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was an English poet, born at Field Place, Essex. He studied at Eton, one of England's famous boarding schools for boys, and at Oxford University. Some years later he went to live in Italy, and it was here that his best-known poems were written. Although he wrote a number of long poems, his fame rests upon his shorter pieces and lyrics. Shelley had a very sensitive and sympathetic |