Compare and Contrast
Comparison of "To a Skylark" and "Ode to a Nightingale" In "To a Skylark", by Percy Shelley, the speaker is addressing a skylark. The first footnote mentions that the "European skylark is a small bird that sings only in flight, often when it is too high to be visible." (765) The speaker goes on to describe the skylark as "That from heaven, or near it/ Pourest they full heart/ In profuse strains of unpremeditated art." (765) He calls the bird "blithe spirit" because he hears the song from above and imagines it from heaven or near it. Shelley uses many similes in this poem. In line 35 he writes, "Like a Poet hidden/In the light of thought/Singing hymns unbidden/ Till the world is wrought/To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not:" (766) He compares the skylark to a poet, then goes on to compare the skylark to a "highborn maiden/In a palace tower/ soothing her love-laden/ Soul in secret hour/ With music as sweet as love-which overflows her bower:" (766) A maiden is sometimes described as "Fresh; innocent; unpolluted; pure; hitherto unused" (Dictionary.com) When he compares the skylark to a maiden, he is describing something so pure, so beautiful that it has never been tainted. He next compares the skylark to a glow-worm.
In the first stanza, the speaker starts off by talking about his heartache. " (848) He feels as though he has taken a drug. The female glow-worm emits light from some abdominal sections. The mood in this poem compared to "To a Skylark is as different as night and day. " (766) The rose is encased in green leaves until the wind blows them open. The word forlorn is what makes him come back to himself. " "Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget/ What thou among the leaves hast never known," (850) The speaker in this poem longs to join the nightingale in its happiness. The speaker longs to be drunk in the next stanza so he could forget the pain. " The last stanza in this poem sums up all of the speaker's feelings. Shelley also compares the skylark to " a rose embowered/ In its own green leaves-/ By warm winds deflowered-/ Till the scent it gives/ Makes faint with too much sweet those heavy-winged thieves. The five-line stanzas of "To a Skylark" follow the same pattern. It causes him to wonder if this experience happened at all or if it was just a dream? The bird in "To a Skylark" is almost exactly like the bird in "Ode to a Nightingale". The nightingale is hidden in the shadows of the trees but can still be heard. The form of "To a Skylark is beautiful.
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