A. Answer these questions.
1. In the first stanza, what does the speaker compare the skylark to, and why?
2. Where is the glow-worm and what is special about it?
3. What happens to the Earth and the moon when the skylark sings?
4. How are our songs different from those of the bird?
5. Does the speaker's mood change as the poem continues? If so, where?
Answers
1/First Stanza
“To a Skylark” begins with the speaker, Percy Bysshe Shelley (as was detailed in the introduction), pointing out a skylark in the sky. He calls out to the bird, not in greeting, but in reverence, “Hail to thee.” ... He refers to the bird as “blithe Spirit,” meaning happiness or joyful.
2/
Glow worms live in dark, wet environments, preferably in glowworm caves if they can find them, although on the Gold Coast of Queensland they don't have any caves to live in, so the local species, Arachnocampa flava are usually found beside waterfalls.
3/
The earth and air ring with the skylark's voice, just as Heaven overflows with moonbeams when the moon shines out from behind “a lonely cloud.” The speaker says that no one knows what the skylark is, for it is unique: even “rainbow clouds” do not rain as brightly as the shower of melody that pours from the skylark.
4/
The speaker opens the poem by calling the skylark a "blithe Spirit," and spends a great deal of the poem describing the pure happiness that the bird's songs express.
5/
The first six stanzas are a celebration of the beauty of the skylark's song and the freedom of its flight. The skylark sings only when flying, and the bird is flying so high that the speaker can no longer see it. Given that the skylark is invisible (but still heard) and so close to "heaven," there is an immaterial, spiritual quality to the skylark's song. So, it is not just the beauty of the song that affects the speaker; he is also struck by the spiritual symbolism of the experience. Note that in the first line, though, he calls the skylark "blithe." This means happy but indifferent to (or unaware of) the suffering of others. These first six stanzas are a celebration, but there is that initial tone of envy as well. The speaker envies the skylark's ability to feel so happy and free, whereas he is burdened...
Explanation:
A. Answer these questions.
1. In the first stanza, what does the speaker compare the skylark to, and why?
2. Where is the glow-worm and what is special about it?
3. What happens to the Earth and the moon when the skylark sings?
4. How are our songs different from those of the bird?
5. Does the speaker's mood change as the poem continues? If so, where?