'To A Skylark' by P B Shelley: First Stanza Explained Thoroughly
Explain the first stanza of Shelley’s To A Skylark . Or Elucidate Stanza 1 from To A Skylark by Shelley. Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! Bird thou never wert, That from Heaven, or near it, Pourest thy full heart In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. These lines, extracted from the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley’s To A Skylark , constitute the first stanza of the poem. As we see, the skylark has been addressed to be the ‘blithe Spirit’ by the poet. That is to say, as the word ‘blithe’ means ‘merry’ or ‘happy-go-lucky’, it refers to the fact that the ‘Spirit’—with the first letter of the word in the upper case—is a source of utmost cheer and mirth. Moreover, when we come to notice that the initial letter of the word called ‘Spirit’ has been capitalised, we can make out that this skylark is no ordinary bird. It is as if a divine agent instead. Hence, the poet hails or welcomes the ‘blithe Spirit’ with endless honour and divine glory. Then, in Line ...