Throughout the early stanza’s nature is used to describe the Skylarks ascent to the heavens, in this case the daily cycle is being used with the dawn of a new day acting as a rebirth as the skylark explodes into the stratosphere, ‘From the Earth thou springest like a cloud of fire,’ as well as, ‘Thou dost float and run; Like an unbodied joy whose race has just begun,’ the second quote made all the more clear by the possible double meaning, the joyous race of the skylark’s ascent as well as the beginning (race) of the new day.
The relationship between nature and art is made abundantly clear by the metaphorical use of the moon in describing the skylark.
Keen as are the arrows
Of that silver sphere,
Whose intense lamp narrows
In the white dawn clear
Until we hardly see – we feel that it is there
The image of the moon in the dawn represents the skylark way up in the heavens and out of sight, ‘Until we hardly see – we feel what it is there,’ the mysterious allure of the skylark is heightened by this vivid imagery and perhaps even more so in the next stanza.
All the earth and air
With thy voice is loud,
As, when night is bare,
From one lonely cloud
The moon rains out her beams, and Heaven is overflowed.
Again the moon is used to represent the skylark, this time in another form, the moonlight has illuminated the earth just like the skylark’s song ‘and heaven is overflowed’ in this case with the skylarks song.
Stanzas 6 and 7 mark a change in the poems direction, Shelley begins to focus on the skylarks divine presence and poses the question of ‘What is it you know that we don’t’ and also uses nature to make the question clearer and uses nature again to make the question clearer. The rainbow is a good illustration because its source (the rain) isn’t seen and it’s the same with the skylark we don’t know the source of its divinity and the bottom three lines of the stanza below help to emphasis in a clearer and more creative way.
What thou art we know not;
What is most like thee?
From rainbow clouds there flow not
Drops so bright to see
As from thy presence showers a rain of melody.
The 7th stanza shows particularly how spontaneous and free the skylark is of all cares, ‘like a Poet hidden In the light of thought, singing hymns unbidden,’ these are perhaps the most personal lines of the poem, but in my view still represent nature. Shelley is likening the spontaneous flow of the skylark to his own creative flow that is to a certain extent spontaneous and is probably the closed he himself will get to the freeness of the skylark. This itself is a natural human precession and shows the ever present nature in the poem and in most things on Earth.
In the following stanzas more harmonious imagery is used to describe the skylark, ‘like a glowworm golden in a dell of dew,’ or, ‘Like a rose embowered in its own green leaves, By warm winds deflowered,’ this builds a pure and natural set of depictions of the skylark. But to show the pure divinity of the skylark, Shelley states, ‘Joyous and clear, and fresh, thy music doth surpass:’ meaning that the skylark is above even these wonders of nature. The skylark is compared and set against nature throughout showing nature to be the central theme in the poem.
After stanza 15, nature seems to take a back seat as Shelley muses over the skylarks freedom, yet he does nature to illustrate these question more clearly, ‘What objects are the fountains of they happy strain,’ and, ‘What shapes of sky or plain? What love of thine own kind? What ignorance of pain?’
In the last few stanzas Shelley ponders over the skylarks enlightened state and wonders what it would be like himself to be like that, ‘Better than all measures of delightful sound, Better than al treasures That in books are found.’ Nature isn’t mentioned as much in the last few stanzas yet it’s the epicentre of the poem and by now the impression has already been made. Therefore the last few stanzas conclude Shelley’s thoughts with a hint of sadness and longing, ‘Such harmonious madness From my lips would flow The world should listen then – as I am listening now.’
From the poem the relationship between nature and art/poetry is a coinciding one, nature allows Shelley to present the subject in a clearer way. The composition of nature itself works hand in hand with the idea of an enlightened being or care free creature and brings life to something that is unknown and difficult to explain.
