To A Skylark

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h2 class="left_4"><SPAN name="TO_A_SKYLARK" id="TO_A_SKYLARK"> <i>TO A SKYLARK</i></SPAN></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">Hail to thee, blithe spirit!</span> <span class="i12">Bird thou never wert&mdash;</span> <span class="i10">That from heaven or near it</span> <span class="i12">Pourest thy full heart</span> <span class="i0">In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">Higher still and higher</span> <span class="i12">From the earth thou springest:</span> <span class="i10">Like a cloud of fire,</span> <span class="i12">The blue deep thou wingest,</span> <span class="i0">And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">In the golden lightning</span> <span class="i12">Of the sunken sun,</span> <span class="i10">O&#8217;er which clouds are brightening,</span> <span class="i12">Thou dost float and run,</span> <span class="i0">Like an embodied joy whose race is just begun.</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">The pale purple even</span> <span class="i12">Melts around thy flight;</span> <span class="i10">Like a star of heaven</span> <span class="i12">In the broad daylight,</span> <span class="i0">Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight&mdash;</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">Keen as are the arrows</span> <span class="i12">Of that silver sphere</span> <span class="i10">Whose intense lamp narrows</span> <span class="i12">In the white dawn clear,</span> <span class="i0">Until we hardly see, we feel, that it is there.</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">All the earth and air</span> <span class="i12">With thy voice is loud,</span> <span class="i10">As, when night is bare,</span> <span class="i12">From one lonely cloud</span> <span class="i0">The moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflow&#8217;d.</span> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">What thou art we know not;</span> <span class="i12">What is most like thee?</span> <span class="i10">From rainbow clouds there flow not</span> <span class="i12">Drops so bright to see</span> <span class="i0">As from thy presence showers a rain of melody:&mdash;</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">Like a poet hidden</span> <span class="i12">In the light of thought,</span> <span class="i10">Singing hymns unbidden,</span> <span class="i12">Till the world is wrought</span> <span class="i0">To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not:</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">Like a high-born maiden</span> <span class="i12">In a palace tower,</span> <span class="i10">Soothing her love-laden</span> <span class="i12">Soul in secret hour</span> <span class="i0">With music sweet as love which overflows her bower:</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">Like a glow-worm golden</span> <span class="i12">In a dell of dew,</span> <span class="i10">Scattering unbeholden</span> <span class="i12">Its aërial hue</span> <span class="i0">Among the flowers and grass which screen it from the view:</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">Like a rose embowered</span> <span class="i12">In its own green leaves,</span> <span class="i10">By warm winds deflower&#8217;d,</span> <span class="i12">Till the scent it gives</span> <span class="i0">Makes faint with too much sweet these heavy-wingèd thieves.</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">Sound of vernal showers</span> <span class="i12">On the twinkling grass,</span> <span class="i10">Rain-awaken&#8217;d flowers,</span> <span class="i12">All that ever was,</span> <span class="i0">Joyous and clear and fresh,&mdash;thy music doth surpass.</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">Teach us, sprite or bird,</span> <span class="i12">What sweet thoughts are thine:</span> <span class="i10">I have never heard</span> <span class="i12">Praise of love or wine</span> <span class="i0">That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine.</span> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">Chorus hymeneal</span> <span class="i12">Or triumphal chaunt,</span> <span class="i10">Match&#8217;d with thine, would be all</span> <span class="i12">But an empty vaunt&mdash;</span> <span class="i0">A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want.</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">What objects are the fountains</span> <span class="i12">Of thy happy strain?</span> <span class="i10">What fields, or waves, or mountains?</span> <span class="i12">What shapes of sky or plain?</span> <span class="i0">What love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain?</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">With thy clear keen joyance</span> <span class="i12">Languor cannot be:</span> <span class="i10">Shadow of annoyance</span> <span class="i12">Never came near thee:</span> <span class="i0">Thou lovest, but ne&#8217;er knew love&#8217;s sad satiety.</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">Waking or asleep,</span> <span class="i12">Thou of death must deem</span> <span class="i10">Things more true and deep</span> <span class="i12">Than we mortals dream,</span> <span class="i0">Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream?</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">We look before and after,</span> <span class="i12">And pine for what is not:</span> <span class="i10">Our sincerest laughter</span> <span class="i12">With some pain is fraught;</span> <span class="i0">Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">Yet, if we could scorn,</span> <span class="i12">Hate and pride, and fear;</span> <span class="i10">If we were things born</span> <span class="i12">Not to shed a tear,</span> <span class="i0">I know not how thy joy we ever should come near.</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">Better than all measures</span> <span class="i12">Of delightful sound,</span> <span class="i10">Better than all treasures</span> <span class="i12">That in books are found,</span> <span class="i0">Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground!</span> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i10">Teach me half the gladness</span> <span class="i12">That thy brain must know;</span> <span class="i10">Such harmonious madness</span> <span class="i12">From my lips would flow</span> <span class="i0">The world should listen then as I am listening now!</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i28"><span class="smcap">P. B. Shelley.</span></span></div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />