Question

Attempt a critical appreciation of “To the Skylark”​

Answer 1

Answer:

To a Skylark‘ by Percy Bysshe Shelley is a twenty-one stanza ode that is consistent in its rhyme scheme from the very first to the last stanza. The piece rhymes, ABABB, with varying end sounds, from beginning to end.

This strictly formatted pattern is also consistent in the meter. The first four lines of each stanza are written in trochaic trimeter, meaning that a stressed syllable comes before an unstressed (trochaic). Additionally, each of the first four lines has three of these beats (trimeter). Different from the other four, but consistent with the rest of the poem, the fifth longer line of each stanza is written in iambic hexameter. This means that each line has six beats of unstressed syllables preceding stressed.

It is also important to make note of the speaker in “To a Skylark.” As has been revealed in poems such as “Ode to the West Wind,” this piece is based on an actual experience the poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, had. Therefore, the poet himself will be considered as the speaker of the poem.