To A Skylark
To A Skylark (P.B. Shelley)
1. In the golden lightning
Of the sunken sun,
O’er which clouds are bright’ning
Thou dost float and run;
Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.
In this stanza, from To A Skylark, Shelley describes the beauty of the skylark soaring in the sky of early morning before sunrise. Very early in the morning the sun seems to remain time beneath the horizon. The crimson rays (लाल-लाल किरण) of the sun appear like flashes (क्षणिक प्रकाश) of lightning to the poet and the clouds that hover (s) on the horizon in the eastern sky become brighter and brighter. The skylark attracted as it were, by this beautiful sight, fly up and signs as it soars in a carefree way. Now it floats as if carried by the air, now it darts (චà 3ì 46, 4) obliquely (fæ‹ò µ ‡) forward. It seems that the bird is a spirit of delight. The poet hears the bird’s song all day long, but he cannot see the bird. So. it seems to him that the skylark is not a creature of flesh and blood but a spirit, a soul full of joy just liberated from the prison of body. It seems to be like a child who is just born in this world and feels life in every limb (अंग) and whose spiritual career (आध्यात्मिक जीवन) has just started.
2. Keen as are the arrows
Of that silver sphere,
Whose intense lamp narrows
In the white down clear
Until we hardly see, we feel that it is there.
In this stanza, from To A Skylark, Shelley describes the shrill note (ata a) of the bird. It is as sharp as the moon beams till they fade away after sunrise. Then the moon can hardly be seen in the sky, yet we know that it is there. Likewise, the bird, while soaring high, becomes invisible, yet we always hear its music.
3. 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.
Here, in this stanza, from Shelley’s To A Skylark, the bird is compared to a lovelorn maiden (farfuft) of aristocratic family, who in order to console herself sings in the solitude of her inner chamber a sweet song which over flows her bower.
An unmarried girl of noble descent often sings her love songs in her secluded (एकान्त) but lofty chamber in order to soothe her love-sick heart. In the tranquil hours (a) of midnight she sings unnoticed by others but her sweet music extends beyond the limit of her chamber and is heard by people all round. Similarly, the skylark singing from a very lofty region in the air, though invisible, fills the whole atmosphere with its charming music and enraptured (f) the hearers below.
4. Like a rose embower’d
In its own green leaves,
By warm winds deflower’d,
Till the scent it gives
Makes faint with too much sweet those heavy-winged thieves.
In these lines, from Shelley’s To A Skylark, the song of the skylark is likened (f) to the smell of the rose.
The rose is concealed in the thick foliage (T) from the view of man. But its fragrance is carried far and nearby the summer winds. Like a thief burdened with a booty ( ) the winds become heavily loaded by robbing the rose of its fragrance and so they blow very languidly (ff) under the heavy burden. Similarly, the bird sings high up in the sky, so that it can not be seen by the people of the world below. But its song is distinctly heard and heartily enjoyed by the people all the time.
5. Waking or asleep,
Thou of death must deem,
Things more true and deep
Than we mortals dream,
Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream?
This is from Shelley’s To A Skylark. In these lines the poet suggests further reasons why the song of the skylark is so joyful and so clear. The skylark seems to have a correct knowledge of the mystery () of death, while man can scarcely possess such knowledge. Death is a source of terror to him. That is why a man’s music cannot have the pure, unmixed joy of the bird’s. According to the poet, the bird is never afraid of death. On the contrary, the bird knows that death is nothing but a gateway to a happier life and hence its song is free and clear, its joy is, therefore, uncommon. The bird is perfect philosopher, having an instinctive (³) perception () of the mystery of death. This clear conception of death never leaves the bird, whether it is in the waking moments of life or asleep. It is this freedom from the terror of death that enables the bird to sing in such sweet and pure strains (r).
6. 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?
These lines have been taken from Shelley’s To A Skylark. The poet wonders how the song of the skylark can be so incomparably (अतुलनीय ढंग से) sweet and delightful. He would fain know that the source of inspiration of the bird’s song. Generally, poets and singers are inspired by the beauty of nature to sing lovely songs. The beauty of the fields, sky, sea and mountains fills the poet’s mind with an eager, ardent joy which finds utterance in noble verses. But these verses of men have not the freshness and joyousness of the song of the bird. Hence the poet wonders if the skylark knows the beautiful aspect of nature that is missed by men. Otherwise its song could not have been so pure and delightful. Or, it may be that the skylark is inspired by a genuine love for its fellow-creatures. Man, too, loves his fellow-beings, but the love of man suffers from some limitation while the bird’s love is free from that. Or, it may be that the skylark is a perfect stranger to the sorrow and pain of life; hence its song is free from the touch of sorrow and is piercingly sweet.
7. We look before and after,
And pine for what is not :
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.
These oft-quoted lines occur in Shelley’s To A Skylark. While contrasting (g) the sky lark’s song with man’s the poet shows the reason why human song can not attain the sweetness and joy of the bird’s music. A man is never happy in his life. When he looks to the past its sweet recollections (fi) make him sorrowful; when he looks forward to the future, eagerly longing for a state of ideal bliss () he becomes gloomy (H). As for the present, he cannot enjoy it as he wanted and unrealised (3rquf) dreams and vague longings, all stand in the way of his making the best use of what he has. Joy and sorrow exist side by side in the life of man. Even in his sincerest laughter there is always an undercurrent of grief (3:). His sweetest songs are those which give terance to his melancholy (3) and sorrow. All these are in perfections (,) of human nature for which man can never sing in such a crystal clear strain (स्फटिक जैसे स्वच्छ संगीत, स्वर) as the skylark does.
8. Teach me half the gladness
That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my slips would flow
The world should listen then,
As I am listening now.
In these concluding lines of his poem To A Skylark. Shelley makes a passionate appeal to the skylark to inspire him with its song and give him at least half of its joy. The bird’s song is filled with supreme joy () and the poet envies (4 st) it. He thinks that even if he could share a small portion of the lark’s joy, he would write such rapturous poems as would straight into the hearts of his readers. They would charm the world in the manner in which the poet himself has been charmed by the song of the bird.
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