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To a Skylark By P. B. Shelley Main Content Introduction: Bird Imagery in Romanticism Literature Analysis Summary Romantic Poems of Bird Imagery Birds as creatures close to spiritual perfection Their gifts of flight and their song as metaphorical examinations of the poets’ dreams and desires Fantastic and otherworldly presence William Wordsworth’s poems such as To the Cuckoo and To a Skylark Analysis Of the Poem The poem can be tentatively divided into three parts, each having its own emphasis. Part I. The first to the sixth stanza Part II. The seventh to the twelfth stanza Part III. The thirteenth to the twenty first stanza Part I. The Skylark’s “profuse strain of unpremeditated art” The skylark’s song which embodies “shrill delight” and “sweetest songs” are poetic inspirations of “unpremediated art”. What Shelley sees in the sky-lark are the instinct to create its art through happiness and joy. Its gift of flight enables it to soar nearest to Heaven, which for many Romantic poets is the source of all spiritually inspired art. A voyage to the limits of sensory perception and knowledge (I) The movement from dusk through to dawn maps a voyage to the limits of sensory perception and knowledge, where the listener desires to describe the skylark’s voice must ask “what thou art we know not; / What is most like thee?” It is also quite clear that Shelley is using the skylark as a metaphor for poetic inspiration. This is what his repetitive imagery about the power and uniqueness of the skylark is, for he is describing what he sees as the ultimate source of poetry; rather like the muses back in the classical era. A voyage to the limits of sensory perception and knowledge (2) Besides, Shelley’s evocation of the skylark’s enchanting voice celebrates the ingenious struggle of a poet to represent what is incomprehensible Part II. An analogue between the unseen skylark and the invisible poet (1) Shelley momentarily finds an analogue between the unseen skylark and t