Ans: “To a Skylark” is a celebrated poem by P.B Shelley who is a prominent poet of the romantic era. In this poem, Shelley idealizes the bird and compares it to many different beautiful things to show that the skylark is far superior to them. To idealize the skylark, the poet has used a series of vivid images in the very poem and those images have added to the beauty and charm of the poem.

The poem “To a Skylark” expresses Shelley’s longing for an ideal world of happiness. Being dissatisfied with the corrupt framework of society, Shelley wished for a new pattern of life and society. Throughout the poem, he has glorified and idealized the skylark in different ways. Its idealization and glorification gain greater strength because of the contrast between the skylark’s carefree and man’s troublesome life.

The very poem opens with an addressing the skylark as a blithe Spirit —

“Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird thou never wert, …. of unpremeditated art.”

Here the poet etherealizes the skylark into a spirit of joyous song. It is no longer a bird of flesh and blood. It is a ‘blithe Spirit’ ‘an unbodied joy ‘whose race is just begun.

Shelley glorifies the song of the skylark by saying that it is more melodious than any other earthly song. The song that is sung at the marriage ceremony is undoubtedly good. The song that is sung on the victory is also excellent. But the melodious and sightless song of the skylark is more melodious and more enchanting than the song of the earth. In fact, it is better than even the song of Hymen, the god of marriage.

Shelley presents the skylark as superior to every earthly object. It is “Like a star of Heaven” and is superior to Earth and unseen “In the broad daylight”. The poet goes on to present the bird through a series of comparisons or similes. The bird has been beautifully compared to a poet hidden in the light of thought, to a highborn maiden in a palace tower, to a glow-worm golden In a dell of dew, and to a rose embowered in its own green leaves.

But the comparisons are not enough to describe the beauty and pre-eminence of the bird. To Shelley, the skylark is an immortal being symbolizing illimitable beauty. Shelley idealizes the skylark in the following lines:

“With thy clear keen joyance
Languor cannot be…..
Thou lovest but ne’er knew love’s sad satiety.”

According to the poet, the skylark knows much more than human beings. It enjoys a deeper knowledge of the mystery of the earth. Human beings are haunted by their thoughts of past and future and pine for what is not. The sweet songs of human beings are those that tell of the saddest thoughts. But the skylark is the embodiment of perennial joy and happiness. The poet says that its melody is —

“Better than all measures
Of delightful sound
Better than all treasures
That in books are found”

Shelley’s idealization of the skylark reaches its highest in the concluding lines of the poem when he submits himself to the skylark and offers a humble prayer to it. In the words of the poet —

“Teach me half the gladness
That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow
The world should listen then – as I am listening now.”

In conclusion, we can say that in the poem “To a Skylark”, Shelley has idealized the skylark very skillfully through various vivid and striking images. In the poem, he idealizes the lark and makes it a symbol of eternal joy and beauty.