ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -To a Skylark, lyric poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, published in 1820 with Prometheus Unbound. Consisting of 21 five-line stanzas, “To a Skylark” is considered a work of metric virtuosity in its ability to convey the swift movement of the bird who swoops high above the earth, beyond mortal experience.

Detailed explanation-2: -The central theme in “To a Skylark” is the power of nature. Shelley primarily uses water imagery to convey this concept. There are descriptions of literal rain, such as “vernal showers” (Line 56) that fall on “rain-awakened flowers” (Line 58).

Detailed explanation-3: -P B Shelley’s ‘To a Skylark’ was inspired by the song of a real skylark, heard in Italy in 1820. Stephen Hebron considers how Shelley transforms ordinary experience into a plea to move beyond that experience to a deeper poetic understanding. Birds produce more complex sounds than any other animal.

Detailed explanation-4: -Shelley knows that his skylark is merely a bird with a song that, to the human ear, sounds like a happy song. He is indulging in fancy and has no intention whatever of deceiving the reader or himself. The exquisite happiness that his ear has heard in the song of the nightingale has carried him away.

Detailed explanation-5: -Shelley composed ‘To a Skylark’ in the summer of 1820, when he was living in Livorno, a town on the north-west coast of Italy. It is one of his most accessible and popular poems.