Ode to a Skylark<\/p>\n
Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
\nBird thou never wert –
\nThat from Heaven or near it
\nPourest thy full heart
\nIn profuse strains of unpremeditated art.<\/p>\n
Higher still and higher
\nFrom the earth thou springest,
\nLike a cloud of fire;
\nThe blue deep thou wingest,
\nAnd singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.<\/p>\n
In the golden lightning
\nOf the sunken sun,
\nO’er which clouds are bright’ning,
\nThou dost float and run,
\nLike an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.<\/p>\n
The pale purple even
\nMelts around thy flight;
\nLike a star of Heaven,
\nIn the broad daylight
\nThou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight –<\/p>\n
Keen as are the arrows
\nOf that silver sphere
\nWhose intense lamp narrows
\nIn the white dawn clear,
\nUntil we hardly see, we feel that it is there.<\/p>\n
All the earth and air
\nWith thy voice is loud,
\nAs, when night is bare,
\nFrom one lonely cloud
\nThe moon rains out her beams, and Heaven is overflowed.<\/p>\n
What thou art we know not;
\nWhat is most like thee?
\nFrom rainbow clouds there flow not
\nDrops so bright to see,
\nAs from thy presence showers a rain of melody: –<\/p>\n
Like a Poet hidden
\nIn the light of thought,
\nSinging hymns unbidden,
\nTill the world is wrought
\nTo sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not:<\/p>\n
Like a high-born maiden
\nIn a palace-tower,
\nSoothing her love-laden
\nSoul in secret hour
\nWith music sweet as love, which overflows her bower:<\/p>\n
Like a glow-worm golden
\nIn a dell of dew,
\nScattering unbeholden
\nIts a\u00ebrial hue
\nAmong the flowers and grass which screen it from the view:<\/p>\n
Like a rose embowered
\nIn its own green leaves,
\nBy warm winds deflowered,
\nTill the scent it gives
\nMakes faint with too much sweet these heavy-wing\u00e9d thieves:<\/p>\n
Sound of vernal showers
\nOn the twinkling grass,
\nRain-awakened flowers –
\nAll that ever was
\nJoyous and clear and fresh – thy music doth surpass.<\/p>\n
Teach us, Sprite or Bird,
\nWhat sweet thoughts are thine:
\nI have never heard
\nPraise of love or wine
\nThat panted forth a flood of rapture so divine.<\/p>\n
Chorus hymeneal,
\nOr triumphal chant,
\nMatched with thine would be all
\nbut an empty vaunt –
\nA thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want.<\/p>\n
What objects are the fountains
\nOf thy happy strain?
\nWhat fields, or waves, or mountains?
\nWhat shapes of sky or plain?
\nWhat love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain?<\/p>\n
With thy clear keen joyance
\nLanguor cannot be:
\nShadow of annoyance
\nNever came near thee:
\nThou lovest, but ne’er knew love’s sad satiety.<\/p>\n
Waking or asleep,
\nThou of death must deem
\nThings more true and deep
\nThan we mortals dream,
\nOr how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream?<\/p>\n
We look before and after,
\nAnd pine for what is not:
\nOur sincerest laughter
\nWith some pain is fraught;
\nOur sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.<\/p>\n
Yet, if we could scorn
\nHate and pride and fear,
\nIf we were things born
\nNot to shed a tear,
\nI know not how thy joy we ever should come near.<\/p>\n
Better than all measures
\nOf delightful sound,
\nBetter than all treasures
\nThat in books are found,
\nThy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground!<\/p>\n
Teach me half the gladness
\nThat thy brain must know;
\nSuch harmonious madness
\nFrom my lips would flow,
\nThe world should listen then, as I am listening now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ode to a Skylark Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! Bird thou never wert – That from Heaven or near it Pourest thy full heart In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. Higher still and higher From the earth thou springest, Like a cloud of fire; The blue deep thou wingest, And singing still dost soar, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[534],"class_list":["post-2010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily","tag-percy-bysshe-shelley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}