This presentation was by Wadha. To a Skylark in Romanticism

1. To a Skylark
Presented by: Wadha Mansour.

2. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
 Shelley was believed in a philosopher first and a poet
second.
 He was one of the major English romantic poets and is
critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the
English language.
Shelley became an idol of the next three or four
generations of poets, including important victorian and
Pre-Raphaelite poets such as Robert Browning, and
Dante Gabriel Rosetti.
Shelley is perhaps best known for such classic poems as
Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark,
Music, When Soft Voices Die, The Cloud and The
Masque of Anarchy, which are among the most popular
and critically acclaimed poems in the English language.

3. His great poetry tells stories of life's lessons
that you would never ever think about. He has
educated people of many ages with his great
poetry, telling them about his life, the good, the
bad, and the simple.
Shelley believed , that art could change the
world by offering to the reader's imagination
what the "real" world denies: possibilities for
rethinking and hence remaking the social
hierarchy.

4. Form
The work consists of five-line stanzas, all twenty-one
following the same pattern.
The first four lines are in the meter of trochaic trimeter.
The fifth is in iambic hexameter, also known as an
Alexandrine.
The rhyme scheme of each stanza is in the form ABABB.

6.  The speaker of the poem hails the skylark as a spirit that
"pours out" its feelings in wondrous singing. Its song is pure and
natural "unpremeditated" (line 5). While the bird soars higher
and higher, it continues to sing. Floating toward the setting sun, it
seems like the bodiless spirit of joy. Eventually, the speaker
cannot see the bird, for it is like trying to see a star in the light of
day. But he can still hear its "shrill delight" (line 20).
 At night, the skylark's song fills the air while "the moon rains
out her beams" (line 30).
 In the daytime, the song of the skylark is more beautiful than
even a glorious rainbow. The speaker then makes the following
comparisons:

7. 1- The skylark is like a poet "hidden in the light of thought" (lines
36-37), a poet whose outpourings inspire people to reflect on
"hopes and fears" (line 40) that they previously ignored.
2- It is like a lovesick maiden in a palace tower: Outsiders cannot
see her, but they can hear her song of love.
3-It is like a glow-worm in a meadow. Grass and flowers block its
magnificent light from reaching human eyes.
4-It is like a rose enclosed within its leaves. When a wind
unleashes its fragrance, hovering bees become faint with the scent.
 The sound of the skylark's song is more beautiful than "All that
ever was / Joyous, and clear, and fresh . . . " (lines 59-60), the
speaker asks it to teach the world its thoughts. Never before has
he heard "Praise of love or wine / That panted forth a flood of
rapture so divine" (lines 64-65) as does the skylark. Wedding
songs and chants of triumph are empty sounds compared to the
skylark's song. What, the speaker asks, causes the bird to make so
wonderful a sound.

8.  The speaker says the skylark apparently has never
experienced boredom or annoyance; it must have some special
knowledge of death—of what is to come—that enables it sing
with such joy.
 Humans do not know such joy. We "pine for what is not" (line
86), and in our laughter there is always some measure of pain.
And what of our songs? Our sweetest ones are about sadness.
But even if we renounced hatred, pride, and fear, even if we
never shed a tear, we could never be as joyful as the skylark. Its
song is better than all other sounds and is more beautiful than all
the treasures of literature.

9.  The speaker concludes by asking the skylark to teach
him "half the gladness" (line 101) that it knows. With
such knowledge, the speaker could present to the world
"harmonious madness" (line 103) that all would listen to.

10. Themes
Natural Beauty
The song of the skylark is extraordinarily beautiful because it is
pure and natural, unlike the sounds created by human
contrivance and artifice. The poem's speaker presents this
theme in lines 4 and 5 when he says the skylark "Pourest thy
full heart / In profuse strains of unpremeditated art."
Freedom
The speaker envies the skylark for its boundless freedom to
roam the skies. He says, "Thou dost float and run, / Like an
unbodied joy whose race is just begun" (lines 14-15). In his own
life, Shelley was a rebel who constantly struggled against the
dictates of authority.

11. Inspiration
 The skylark is natural metaphor that represent pure poetic
expression, and the "harmonious madness" for pure
inspiration.
The skylark inspires Shelley to feel a frantic, rapturous joy
that has no part of pain.
the skylark sings free of all human error and complexity,
and while listening to his song, the poet feels free of those
things, too.

13. Apostrophe
The speaker addresses the bird.
Repetition
Metaphor
Paradox

14. Simile

16. 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: (Lines 36-40)
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:(Lines 41-45)
Like a glow-worm golden
In a dell of dew,
Scattering unbeholden
Its aërial hue
Among the flowers and grass which screen it from the view:(Lines 46-50)
Like a rose embower'd
In its own green leaves,
By warm winds deflower'd,
Till the scent it gives

17. Imagery

18. In the first half of the poem, Shelley presents images of
light and brightness to suggest the celestial quality of the
skylark's song and perhaps to symbolize the radiance of his
own poetry, which he hoped would gain more widespread
attention. Following are examples of this imagery :

20. Symbolism
 In the poem “Ode to Skylark” Shelley symbolizes the
Skylark-“blithe spirit” as if it had the power to response. He
offers a warm welcome to the Skylark.
 The Skylark is unseen but still it is compared to a poet
composing, a maiden in love, a glow-worm throwing out its
beams of light, a rose in bloom diffusing its scent, and the
sound of rain on twinkling grass. Shelley finds the Skylark as
the embodiment of all these qualities which can never be
found in a single human being.

21.  Shelley also symbolizes the human song as “an empty
vaunt” comparing it with Skylark’s joyful songs. Humans
also sing songs in praise of love or wine. They sing songs in
order to celebrate a wedding or a victory but compared with
the Skylark’s singing, all human songs would seem to be
meaningless. We feel that there is some hidden want in
human performance. Thus Shelley makes the bird Skylark
a symbol of pure, unalloyed ad unrestricted happiness.
 The skylark is a symbol of exultation and spiritual
desire..

22. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/difference-between-romanticism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_a_Skylark
http://www.123helpme.com/percy-bysshe-
shelleys-ode-to-a-skylark-view.asp?id=169192
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides8/Sk
ylark.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_a_Skylark