Read Wordsworth’s and Shelley’s poems To a Skylark and...

Read Wordsworth’s and Shelley’s poems To a Skylark and Hughes’ poem Skylarks. Discuss the similarities and differences in the poets’ presentation of, and attitude to, the birds. There are a number of similarities and differences in Wordsworth’s, Shelley’s and Hughes’ presentation of, and attitude to the birds through form, diction and imagery. The first line in Wordsworth’s poem is about an ‘Ethereal minstrel!’ and a ‘pilgrim of the sky!’. This tells of a medieval singer who roams with a purpose. Wordsworth uses these to apostrophise the lark. When these lines are combined with others throughout the poem it becomes apparent that the lark is used as a metaphoric visual aid. This is shown with the apparent dichotomy between†¦show more content†¦The words ‘flood’ and ‘pour’ in the poem normally are associated with water, thus showing how the lark’s music flows and how much of it there is. Wordsworth’s poem is therefore presented as an apostrophe to a skylark that is quite rhythmic due to it being largely iambic pentameter. It is also written in a very traditional form with a strict rhythm and rhyme structure that suggests that it is pre 20th century. This is confirmed by the moral, philosophical view of lark, as it is shown to be a metaphor and moral for human life. As well as sharing the same title (‘To a Skylark’), Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem also shares a similar way of presenting the lark. Composed five years before Wordsworth’s poem, this poem is also written in a very traditional form with much archaic diction. It has a maintained stanza form throughout and is as, if not more, archaic shown by quotations such as, ‘hail to thee’ and ‘thou’. In the second stanza, although there is no reference to a bird, the language used suggests an immense scale similar to that used in Wordsworth’s presentation of the lark’s ‘flood’ of harmony or song. Quotations such as, ’Higher still and higher’ and ‘springest’, show this similarity. Similar to Wordsworth’s poem, Shelley begins with exclamation with, ‘Hail to thee, blithe spirit!’. Again although much more subtle and less