After I read this poem, I was curious to know exactly what a skylark was. I know the poem does explain to us that it is a bird but I wanted to know what was different about THIS particular bird. I thought some of you may be interested to know as well. This is what I found, and although it isn't the most reliable source we use, I found this information to be interesting.
"It is a bird of open farmland and heath, known throughout its range for the song of the male, which is delivered in hovering flight from heights of 50 to 100 m, when the singing bird may appear as just a dot in the sky from the ground. The long, unbroken song is a clear, bubbling warble delivered high in the air while the bird is rising, circling or hovering. The song generally lasts two to three minutes, but it tends to last longer later in the mating season, when songs can last for 20 minutes or more." (Wikipedia)
Now I can understand more of the beauty to this bird and why the poet made this bird seem to be so beautiful and inspiring. It is as if the narrator wants to be able to escape from the human life, and have no worries or thoughts, but to soar above the clouds like this bird. I get the feeling that the narrator envies the bird. No, it is not specifically spoken in the poem, but it is a feeling you get while you are reading it. They way the bird is identified and compared to so many beautiful things in the poem, and how you can feel the authors want of just wanting to escape and sing as the skylark can. One of the stanzas that I mostly related with is , "What objects are the fountains Of thy happy strain? What fields, or waves, or mountains? What shapes of sky, or plain? What love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain?" (Lines 71-75) It is the narrator asking questions to this bird about it's secrets that it cannot tell, and the narrator wishes they could relate and have this ignorance of pain.
I like that you researched about the skylark- I found it more informative to the poem as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your reading of the poem, especially when coupled with the expert you pulled. However, I also read her questions to be indicative of perhaps a yearning to be as beautiful and emphemerally-lasting (I know that's a contradiction, but I don't know the words to use) as the skylark in terms of her poetry and other writing. The "fountains" I took to mean "fountains of inspiration"-- a reference to the Muses. Perhaps it's a wish to know what the skylark knows- it's secrets that it cannot tell as you put- in order to reach the level of beauty that the skylark's song is on
I think I have said before in a post/response that I am really interested in the prevalence of the concept of spirit during this era. I noticed that in this poem as well as in Heman's "The Effigies", 'spirit' is seen as something that is eluding the narrator in some way. This also occurred similarly in Wordsworth's "The Ruined Cottage", when spirit was referred to as "that secret spirit of humanity." In all of these cases, spirit is either transferred away from the narrator or was never a part of the narrator... or both.
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