Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ode To A Skylark

1765 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Symbolism

According to Near Eastern mythology, the lark was the first creature to live upon the earth. Even today, he carries his father or creator inside the crest of his head. In other regions, the lark became associated with the "Spirit of the Wheat" and eventually with Christ who proclaimed, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever" (John 6:51; see also John 6:32-50). This bird's use as a symbol of Christ was strengthened by the fact that it helps rid wheat fields of locust eggs, caterpillars, and the harvest beetle - destructive creatures which were symbols of the devil. Because he makes his nest on the ground, the lark, like Christ is considered an intermediary between heaven and earth and a symbol of the marriage of heaven and earth.

Because the lark soars straight into the heavens and, upon reaching a great height, hovers there singing a joyful song, this bird is considered an emblem of glad prayers to the Creator inspired by the joys of being alive. He is believed to pray for the sowers of the wheat fields and, allegorically, for the sowers of Christ's fields. Its association with prayer makes this bird a symbol of the priesthood. In Scotland, it is said that the song of the lark may be understood by any person who lies quietly in the fields and listens to it. A British superstition states that drinking three lark's eggs will give one a beautiful singing voice. The singing lark is especially a symbol of the praying Christ as He ascends into Heaven, blessing His disciples (Luke 24:50-51; see also Acts 1:9; Mk 16:19).

This bird also symbolizes freedom, ardor, joy, youth, happiness, and the desire to be happy. Among the French, lark's legs are carried as good luck charms in the same way as rabbit's feet are treasured by the superstitious.

Remarkable in many ways, a great in his own time, Percy Bysshe Shelley was a man amongst men, a poet among poets, and an educator of life amongst all. His great poetry tells stories of life's lessons that you would never ever think about. He's educated people of many ages with his great poetry, telling them about his life, the good, the bad, and the simple. His works will be treated as a great reference for many years as great poets emerge from our peers.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of The Ghent Altarpiece

    734 Words  | 2 Pages

    The background behind the figure contains pelicans and grapes with vines. According to Mary Elizabeth Podles, the significance of the pelican is that the pelican will give its own blood to feed their own children, and the grapes represents the blood of Jesus during Eucharistic ceremony (54). Christians believe that they are consuming the blood of Christ when they drink the wine. Jesus fills his followers with his blood just like the pelicans feed his or her children with their blood.

    Read More

  • letter from john foulcher to editor

    818 Words  | 2 Pages

    The purpose of the poem was to express my interests of nature and how I felt and what I experienced when I was in the woods at that time. There’s also that life and death aspect in this poem, in which the bird has the lizard in his mouth and also by the word “fire”.

    Read More

  • The Use of Symbolic Objects in Marie de France's Works

    356 Words  | 1 Pages

    In a Laustic, the birds are depicted here as being joyful, sweet but the married wife uses a nightingale to send out messages to her loved one. The usage of the nightingale suggests that she does not know the joys of the world, that she has been unfortunate to be relieved of pain. A nightingale usually symbolizes yearning and pain and in Christianity it symbolizes longing for heaven. In which case would be the love she holds for another.

    Read More

  • Dorianne Laux’s “Bird”

    1108 Words  | 3 Pages

    The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.

    Read More

  • A Lady's Life In The Rocky Mountains Analysis

    1383 Words  | 3 Pages

    This is a clear statement that says nature makes one think of God. Although her most blatant statement is in letter thirteen her most powerful testimony of seeing God in nature is found in letter seven. In letter seven, Bird recounts her ascension of Long’s Peak with her friend Mountain Jim as her guide. At 3,700 feet below the summit of the mountain they come upon a beautiful sunrise. Bird records that upon seeing the beautiful sunrise Mountian Jim cry’s out that he believes in God. By recording the words of Mountian Jim, the notorious desperado, as they relate to the sunrise, Bird shows how creation undoubtably points to a

    Read More

  • Thomas Hobbes Little Bird Analysis

    499 Words  | 1 Pages

    The “Little Bird” by Imogen Heap, represents the human effort to hide ugliness. Humans are attracted to beautiful things, yet they themselves are not. Humans are naturally bitter and are without morals; it is society that puts us into place. So human effort is focused on fixing themselves and their surroundings. The little bird symbolizes a metaphysical being that humanity looks towards for help.

    Read More

  • Toni Morrison's Sula

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although on the surface, Eva's burning of Plum appears as a ghastly and un-motherly act (not to say that it isn't ghastly), with more analysis becomes a more perplexing question. When Eva pours kerosene on Plum, it is described as a sort of baptism, "He opened his eyes and saw what he imagined was the great wing of an eagle pouring a wet lightness over him. Some kind of baptism, some kind of blessing he thought" (47). Eva believes that she is liberating Plum from his depressed, drugged life and saving his soul. The eagle that plum imagines seeing is a symbol of liberty and the wing is a symbol for maternal love as a bird may nestle its chicks with its wing. Even when Nel later visits Eva in the nursing home, Eva approves of her liberation of Plum. She disapproves of Nel and Sula's throwing Chicken Little in the water, yet justifies killing Plum by saying, "It's awful cold in the water. Fire is warm. How did you get him in?" (168).

    Read More

  • The Scarlet Ibis Analysis

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Scarlet Ibis bird symbolizes Doodle; this symbolism can be seen by the authors description of both Doodle’s and the Scarlet Ibis’s appearance after death. After the Scarlet Ibis fell from the bleeding tree his “long, graceful neck jerked twice into an S, then straightened out,” (Hurst 4) and he died. After Doodle’s death his brother finds “him huddled beneath a nightshade bush beside the road,” (Hurst 4) where he lay dead. The way Doodle fell made “his vermilion neck appear unusually long and slim,” (Hurst 4). Much like the long legs of the Scarlet Ibis, “his little legs bent sharply at the knees,” making them seem “so fragile, so thin,” (Hurst 4). This description of Doodle allows the reader to imagine him like the Scarlet Ibis, with his seemingly long neck and thin, fragile legs. Both Doodle and the Scarlet Ibis have this appearance after they fall to their death. Hurst utilizes very similar descriptive words when describing both the Scarlet Ibis and Doodle’s appearance after death, so that readers can better see the symbolism of the two.

    Read More

  • Eagle Poem

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the poem by Joy Harjo called “Eagle Poem,” Harjo talks about prayer and life and how they revolve around mother-nature. She suggests that while being one with nature, we feel we are in a place in which we haven’t imagined and the things in which we would love to do in that magnificent and calming place. After one reads the poem, he/she enjoys the lyrical type of it. This is because “Eagle Poem” sticks to one idea and extends it throughout the entire poem. For instance, it talks about prayer, nature, and animals from start to finish.

    Read More

  • Internal Conflict In The Awakening

    817 Words  | 2 Pages

    The bird indirectly represents Enda’s failure to seek liberation and defy against the restrictions society sets upon her. The fall of the bird is reflective of Enda’s spiritual awakening as it represents society’s fatal misjudgment as she desires to rebel against society and participates an infatuation with her lover Robert. As the bird falls into the water, is like Enda as Enda rejects Victorian motherhood, only seeing destruction as an

    Read More

  • The Impact of Lord Byron on the World

    1884 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...l as egocentric traits, promiscuousness, and brilliance. His narrative, lyrical works are considered to be legendary and has impacted generations that go as far as even today. Byron is considered to be a hero and is still considered one of the greatest poets to step onto the face of the earth.

    Read More

  • The Statue Of Ozymandias By Percy Bysshe Shelley

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    Percy Bysshe Shelley died before seeing how influential and glorified his work would become. Shelley lived during the late 18th and early 19th century, during the industrial revolution. Seeing the evolving world, Shelley wrote for nothing more than to deliver urgent messages concerning humanity, humanity’s future, and who the powers at be should be. Shelley didn’t see the glory he deserved during his lifetime because his radical views of anti-tyranny were expressed in his poetry, driving them to underground distribution, but after his death he inspired countless other literary artists including including Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, and Upton Sinclair and became regarded as a major romantic poet. Shelley exchanged his ideas with a group of visionary

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson's Some Keep The Sabbath Going To Church

    684 Words  | 2 Pages

    Metaphors are often used in order to further introduce and explain an idea. The speaker compares “And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church, / Our little Sexton – sings” to help the reader comprehend that she feels as if she is in church when in fact she can be with God in her own home. By comparing the church bells to her own sexton, which refers back to the Bobolink, the speaker explains that the lavish and ornate decorative items within a church are merely physical, and that true relationship with God comes from a relationship, not by attending church only because one believes that is the correct way to honor the Sabbath. Emily Dickinson also compares the clothing in which the speaker and the regular church attendance wears. The different dress between the church and the speaker is described as “Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice – / I, just wear my Wings”. A surplice is a long, white gown worn by church clergyman and the chorister. The church believes this outfit demonstrates respect towards God. The speaker knows that clothing does not matter to God or towards one relationship with him. This is why she only wears her wings. The wings in the poem seem to represent angel wings which would imply the closeness the speaker holds with God. The metaphors in this poem help Dickinson to further extend her point of different ways to honor the

    Read More

  • Nature in the Works of Emily Dickinson

    1384 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... the reader understand the meaning that is behind it, like so “the poem concludes by asking rhetorically whether its listeners now understand the truths produced by both birds and poetry” (SparkNotes Editors). Besides nature being compared from birds a deeper meaning is behind this symbol and this is “art produces soothing, truthful sounds” (SparkNotes Editors) just like the soothing sounds from a bird that anyone can enjoy.

    Read More

  • The Differences and Similarities Between Caged Bird and Still I Rise

    1327 Words  | 3 Pages

    bird as the metaphor of the poem to get the message of the poem across

    Read More

More about Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ode To A Skylark

Open Document