Read Wordsworth’s and Shelley’s poems To a Skylark and Hughes’ poem

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 earth and sky. The lines,

‘Or, while the wings aspire’ and ‘Both with thy nest upon the dewy

ground’, suggest that even though the lark aspires to even greater

heights literally and spiritually its nest is still on the ground and

so it must come back down. The bird could therefore be seen as a

pilgrim of the sky. However the question ‘Dost thou despise the earth

where cares abound?’, also shows the way that the lark despises the

earth. The line, ‘Type of the wise who soar, but never roam’, can

again be linked to ‘aspire’. This line contrasts with the beginning of

the poem, as it is now saying that soaring is to rise, whereas roam is

to move around but not to rise. Roaming is therefore seen as a

negative attribute that prevents humans from aspiring.

The poem continues with two significant paradoxes, ‘A privacy of

glorious light’ and ‘a flood Of harmony’. The former has links to

religion as glorious light suggests Heaven. The latter suggests a

musical link, as it illustrates the lark...

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...s them the O.K.’. The poem ends with the line, ‘Conscience

perfect’, implying that this is the state of mind that humans want to

aspire to.

Hughes’ poem uses a much more aggressive vocabulary compared to

Wordsworth’s and Shelley’s poems. Words such as, ‘whippet’, ’arrow’,

‘struggle’, ‘rocketing’, ‘bullet’ and ‘thrash’ all show this. This

aggression is just part of the modern diction of the poem, which is

why the other poets did not use such vocabulary. This type of

vocabulary illustrates the highly unorthodox view of the lark, as due

to the language used, it could be compared with birds of prey as

indeed Hughes does when he says ‘Crueller then owl or eagle’. The

‘hunting arrow’ that is mentioned can be compared with the line, ‘Keen

as the arrows’, from Shelley’s poem. Both of these mentions of arrows

illustrate the speed of flight and the purpose of it.