To a Skylark
O SKYLARK! I see thee and call thee joy!Thy wings bear thee up to the breast of the dawn;I see thee no more, but thy song is stillThe tongue of the heavens to me!
Thus are the days when I was a boy;Sweet while I lived in them, dear now they’re gone:I feel them no longer, but still, O stillThey tell of the heavens to me.
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.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Skylark is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems — Volume 1, Project Gutenberg ebook #1381; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George Meredith, To a Skylark, in Modern Love, and Other Poems (1851–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1381, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/meredith-poems/to-a-skylark.html, id L13158.
Form and metre
To a Skylark is 8 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.5 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O SKYLARK! I see thee and call thee joy! | 10 | ·/········ |
| Thy wings bear thee up to the breast of the dawn; | 11 | ··········· |
| I see thee no more, but thy song is still | 10 | ·········· |
| The tongue of the heavens to me! | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Thus are the days when I was a boy; | 9 | ········· |
| Sweet while I lived in them, dear now they’re gone: | 10 | ·········· |
| I feel them no longer, but still, O still | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| They tell of the heavens to me. | 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.