The Skylark

Percy Shelley’s poem is an ode to a skylark, observed in full flight on an evening’s stroll. From the first stanza onward, the poet attributes celestial grace to the bird, who represents the splendor of nature. The bird is likened to “a high-born maiden” (41), “a glow-worm golden” (46), and a “a rose embower’d” (51) in a series of adulatory comparisons that note the bird’s carefree elegance in flight. Shelley also refers to the bird as “blithe Spirit” (1) and “scorner of the ground” (100), situating the skylark and its actions as representative of a larger wholeness and force within the natural world.

The Moon

The moon anthropomorphically takes on the role of a character in the verse. Shelley speaks of its “arrows” (21), which refer to moonbeams being projected as if from an archer. He also refers to it lyrically as “that silver sphere” (22). In the sixth stanza...