The Skylark: Child’s Morning Hymn
The skylark, when the dews of mornHang tremulous on flower and thorn,And violets round his nest exhaleTheir fragrance on the early gale,To the first sunbeam spreads his wings,Buoyant with joy, and soars and sings.
He rests not on the leafy sprayTo warble his exulting lay;But high above the morning cloudMounts in triumphant freedom proud,And swells, when nearest to the sky,His notes of sweetest ecstasy.
Thus, my Creator! thus the moreMy spirit’s wing to Thee can soar,The more she triumphs to beholdThy love in all thy works unfold,And bids her hymns of rapture beMost glad, when rising most to Thee!
Words in this poem
- skylark n.
- A lark that mounts and sings as it files, especially the common species (Alauda arvensis) found in Europe and in some parts of Asia, and celebrated for its melodious song; -- called also sky laverock.
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- sunbeam n.
- A beam or ray of the sun. [AS. sunnebeam.]
- warble v. t.
- To sing in a trilling, quavering, or vibratory manner; to modulate with turns or variations; to trill; as, certain birds are remarkable for warbling their songs. [OE. werbelen, OF. werbler; of Teutonic origin; cf. G. wirbeln to turn, to warble, D. wervelen, akin to E. whirl. See Whirl.]
- exulting a.
- Rejoicing triumphantly or exceedingly; exultant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Skylark: Child’s Morning Hymn is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Felicia Hemans, Project Gutenberg ebook #66785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Felicia Hemans, The Skylark: Child’s Morning Hymn, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/the-skylark-child-s-morning-hymn.html, id L19616.
Form and metre
The Skylark: Child’s Morning Hymn is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABBCC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCC mornA · thornA · exhaleB · galeB · wingsC · singsC
- 2 AABB-- sprayA · layA · cloudB · proudB · sky · ecstasy
- 3 AABBCC moreA · soarA · beholdB · unfoldB · beC · theeC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The skylark, when the dews of morn | 8 | ·/······ |
| Hang tremulous on flower and thorn, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/·· |
| And violets round his nest exhale | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Their fragrance on the early gale, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To the first sunbeam spreads his wings, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Buoyant with joy, and soars and sings. | 8 | /˘······ |
| He rests not on the leafy spray | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To warble his exulting lay; | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| But high above the morning cloud | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Mounts in triumphant freedom proud, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| And swells, when nearest to the sky, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| His notes of sweetest ecstasy. | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Thus, my Creator! thus the more | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| My spirit’s wing to Thee can soar, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The more she triumphs to behold | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Thy love in all thy works unfold, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And bids her hymns of rapture be | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Most glad, when rising most to Thee! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.