The Skylark
Bird of the wilderness,Blithesome and cumberless,Sweet be thy matin o’er moorland and lea!Emblem of happiness,Blest is thy dwelling-place--Oh, to abide in the desert with thee!
Wild is thy lay and loud,Far in the downy cloud,Love gives it energy, love gave it birth.Where, on thy dewy wing,Where art thou journeying?Thy lay is in heaven, thy love is on earth.
O’er fell and fountain sheen,O’er moor and mountain green,O’er the red streamer that heralds the day,Over the cloudlet dim,Over the rainbow’s rim,Musical cherub, soar, singing, away!
Then, when the gloaming comes,Low in the heather bloomsSweet will thy welcome and bed of love be!Emblem of happiness,Blest is thy dwelling-place--Oh, to abide in the desert with thee!
Words in this poem
- blithesome a.
- Cheery; gay; merry.
- matin n.
- A French mastiff. [F. matin.]
- moorland n.
- Land consisting of a moor or moors. [AS. morland.]
- sheen v. i.
- To shine; to glisten.
- cloudlet n.
- A little cloud. R. Browning.
- cherub n.
- A mysterious composite being, the winged footstool and chariot of the Almighty, described in Ezekiel i. and x. [Heb. kerub.]
- gloaming n.
- Twilight; dusk; the fall of the evening. [Scot. & North of Eng., and in poetry.] Hogg. [See Gloom.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Skylark is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mary E. Burt, The Skylark, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/the-skylark.html, id L25321.
Form and metre
The Skylark is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABCCB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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 AABAAB wildernessA · cumberlessA · leaB · happinessA · placeA · theeB
- 2 AABCCB loudA · cloudA · birthB · wingC · journeyingC · earthB
- 3 AABCCB sheenA · greenA · dayB · dimC · rimC · awayB
- 4 --ABBA comes · blooms · beA · happinessB · placeB · theeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Bird of the wilderness, | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Blithesome and cumberless, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Sweet be thy matin o’er moorland and lea! | 10 | ···/˘·/··· |
| Emblem of happiness, | 6 | /˘·/˘˘ |
| Blest is thy dwelling-place-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Oh, to abide in the desert with thee! | 10 | ··˘/··˘/·· |
| Wild is thy lay and loud, | 6 | ······ |
| Far in the downy cloud, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Love gives it energy, love gave it birth. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Where, on thy dewy wing, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Where art thou journeying? | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Thy lay is in heaven, thy love is on earth. | 10 | ····/····· |
| O’er fell and fountain sheen, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| O’er moor and mountain green, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| O’er the red streamer that heralds the day, | 10 | ···/˘·/˘·· |
| Over the cloudlet dim, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Over the rainbow’s rim, | 6 | ···/·· |
| Musical cherub, soar, singing, away! | 9 | /˘/˘·/˘˘/ |
| Then, when the gloaming comes, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Low in the heather blooms | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Sweet will thy welcome and bed of love be! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Emblem of happiness, | 6 | /˘·/˘˘ |
| Blest is thy dwelling-place-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Oh, to abide in the desert with thee! | 10 | ··˘/··˘/·· |
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.