What’s riches to him That has made a great peacock With the pride of his eye? The wind-beaten, stone-grey, And desolate Three Rock Would nourish his whim. Live he or die Amid wet rocks and heather, His ghost will be gay Adding feather to feather For the pride of his eye.
— W B Yeats
“The Peacock”First published in “Poetry”( May 1914 issue ) , A Magazine Of Verse , A Bird Poem By W B Yeats is About detecting a “ghost of gay“/ Adding feather 🪶 to feather 🪶on his body of “riches”/ That has made a great peacock / With the pride of his eye (?)”; as quality suggested by The Poet Speaker.
A Birthday : : By Christina Rossetti : My heart is like a singing bird Whose nest is in a water’d shoot; My heart is like an apple-tree Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit; My heart is like a rainbow shell That paddles in a halcyon sea; My heart is gladder than all these Because my love is come to me.
Raise me a dais of silk and down; Hang it with vair and purple dyes; Carve it in doves and pomegranates, And peacocks with a hundred eyes; Work it in gold and silver grapes, In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys; Because the birthday of my life Is come, my love is come to me.
“A Birthday”, A 16 lines Melodious / Devotional / Birthday / Bird Poem By One of the most important poets of the Victorian age ( Famous for her most important collection “Goblin Market and other Poems”, Christina Rossetti is About pure, un- darkened joy , henceoften used in greeting cards. The Poet Speaker employs the images of a sinnging bird, a thickset bent apple tree ( or several trees close together ) due to heavyset / loaded 🍎 🍏 Apples , and a “rainbow shell” that “paddles ( floating calmly , like mythological woman / turned into a Kingfisher bird whose nest floating in sea water / Alcyone) in halcyon sea”( marked by peace, prosperity and happiness ) which is a joyous image of paddling playfully splashing around the seawater 💦 or propelling her own 🛶 canoe/ small boat; and is an expression of the depth of her love. She wishes she acquires an elaborate golden throne carved in wood 🪵 as the Speaker says ,” in doves and pomegranates, And peacocks with a hundred eyes;”: To celebrate her love’s or lover’s birthday The Poet Speaker requests to “Work it in gold and silver grapes, In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;” : fleurs-de-lis Or Iris / Sword Lily Plants bearing bright flowers with 3 petals & 3 drooping sepals. : : She is talking about love of God Or of Some life force Or even the birth of a child. : : Actually, her heart is even happier than all such things in her imagination because my love is here. : : All this is Because today is the day her life really begins, now that her love is here.
Sujata Bhatt ( b. 1956 , Ahmedabad : Aged 67 Years ) grew up in Pune but emigrated with her family to the United States in 1968. She studied in the States receiving an MFA from the University of Iowa and went on to be writer-in-residence at the University of Victoria, Canada. More recently she was visiting fellow at Dickinson College, Pennsylvania. She currently lives with her husband and daughter in Bremen, Germany. Her first collection, Brunizem, won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Asia) and the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award. Subsequent collections have been awarded a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and in 1991 she received a Cholmondeley Award & Italian Tratti Poetry Prize in 2000. She has translated Gujarati poetry into English for the Penguin Anthology of Contemporary Indian Women Poets. Combining Gujarati and English, Bhatt writes “Indian-English rather than Anglo-Indian poetry.” Michael Schmidt (poet) observed that her “free verse is fast-moving, urgent with narratives, softly spoken. Bhatt lives in Bremen, Germany with her husband, the German writer Michael Augustin, and daughter.
Collections include: Poppies in Translation Carcanet, 2015; Collected Poems Carcanet, 2013; Pure Lizard, Carcanet, 2006; A Colour for Solitude, Carcanet, 2002; Augatora, Carcanet, 2000; Point No Point, Carcanet, 1997; The Stinking Rose, Carcanet, 1995; Monkey Shadows, Carcanet, 1991
Sujata Bhatt was involved with ‘What if Not transaformation… ‘at the Southbank Centre 2014
The Peacock : : By Sujata Bhatt ( b. 1956 ) Bremen, Germany : : : :
The Peacock :
His loud sharp call
seems to come from nowhere.
Then, a flash of turquoise
in the pipal tree
The slender neck arched away from you
as he descends,
and as he darts away, a glimpse
of the very end of his tail.
I was told
that you have to sit in the veranda
And read a book,
preferably one of your favourites
with great concentration..
The moment you begin to live
inside the book
A blue shadow will fall over you.
The wind will change direction,
The steady hum of bees
In the bushes nearby
will stop.
The cat will awaken and stretch.
Something has broken your attention;
And if you look up in time
You might see the peacock turning away as he gathers
his tail
To shut those dark glowing eyes,
Violet fringed with golden amber.
It is the tail that has to blink
For eyes that are always open.
— Sujata Bhatt
“The Peacock”29 lines, An Allegorical Bird Poem taken from her collection named “Brunizem” ( that won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for the Asia section in 1988.) By Indian – English diasporic Writer and Poet living in Germany , Sujata Bhatt is About the beauty and eluding nature of the bird, and About The Poet Speaker’s longing for India – A country of her birth place. She presents her persisting love and pride of India through the descriptions of the colourful beauty of The Peacock 🦚 and symbolic representation.: : : :
Stanza 1 : : “His loud sharp call 1
seems to come from nowhere. 2
Then, a flash of turquoise 3
in the pipal tree 4
The slender neck arched away from you 5
as he descends, 6
and as he darts away, a glimpse7
of the very end of his tail.” 8 : : lines 1 To 8 : :
About : Notes for the Two Stanzas Pending visit this post again later on to enjoy the appreciation of the poem V Jayaraj Pune India September 20 , 2023 : : : :
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird : : By Wallace Stevens :
Profile of Wallace Stevens Smiling. ( Photo by Bettmann/Getty Image) Wallace Stevens ( 1879 – 1955 ) is one of America’s most respected 20th century poets. He was a master stylist, eminent abstractionist and a provocative thinker, a difficult Poet employing an extraordinary vocabulary and a rigorous precision in crafting his poems. But he was also a philosopher of aesthetics, vigorously exploring the notion of poetry as the supreme fusion of the creative imagination and objective reality. In 1975, for instance, noted literary critic Harold Bloom, whose writings on Stevens include the imposing Wallace Stevens: The Poems of Our Climate, called him “the best and most representative American poet of our time.”
I Among twenty snowy mountains, The only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbird.
II I was of three minds, Like a tree In which there are three blackbirds.
III The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds. It was a small part of the pantomime.
IV A man and a woman Are one. A man and a woman and a blackbird Are one.
V I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after.
VI Icicles filled the long window With barbaric glass. The shadow of the blackbird Crossed it, to and fro. The mood Traced in the shadow An indecipherable cause.
VII O thin men of Haddam, Why do you imagine golden birds? Do you not see how the blackbird Walks around the feet Of the women about you?
VIII I know noble accents And lucid, inescapable rhythms; But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved In what I know.
IX When the blackbird flew out of sight, It marked the edge Of one of many circles.
X At the sight of blackbirds Flying in a green light, Even the bawds of euphony Would cry out sharply.
XI He rode over Connecticut In a glass coach. Once, a fear pierced him, In that he mistook The shadow of his equipage For blackbirds.
XII The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying.
XIII It was evening all afternoon. It was snowing And it was going to snow. The blackbird sat In the cedar-limbs.
— Wallace Stevens, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens. ( Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. 1954 )
“Thirteen Ways Of Looking At A Blackbird” A Bird Poem By Wallace Stevens is About the relations between humankind, nature, and emotions. The title implicitly refers the plural nature of perception. There isn’t just one way of perceiving the world. : Stevens experiments with the application of the verb “to be” in its many forms and conjugations throughout the thirteen cantos of the poem. The imagery of the poem is strong, with sight being the main sensory experience explored throughout. The speaker is depicted as with an ironic detachment.
The blackbird symbolizes the prototypical poet who lacks any sense of self-consciousness. : A symbol of someone trying to find freedom, is encouraged to fly, meaning to “go for it” and try to find its freedom. The shift of the poem happens when the poem switches to the third stanza. The blackbird, trapped and repressed in the second stanza, is now given the freedom of flight. : The blackbird represents wisdom, ominousness, and enigma and are regarded as a sign of luck or a cautionary message in many cultures. They are also believed to serve as totems, spirits, or power animals, guiding individuals through life. : : : :
Notes for each of the lines Pending visit this post again later on to enjoy the appreciation of the poem V Jayaraj Pune India September 19 , 2023 : : : :
Photo by Hulton Archive (Getty Images) : : Gerard Manley Hopkins ( 1844 – 1889 ) is considered to be one of the greatest poets of the Victorian era.
The Windhover : : By Gerard Manley Hopkins ( 1844 – 1889 ) To Christ our Lord
I caught this morning morning’s minion, king- dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing, As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier! No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear, Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion. — Gerard Manley Hopkins : : Source : Gerard Manley Hopkins: Poems and Prose (Penguin Classics, 1985) : From poetryfoudation.org For Educational Purposes only.
“The Windhover”,Written on May 30 , 1877 , A Sonnet and A Bird Poem By Gerard Manley Hopkins ( 1844 – 1889 ) is About The Beauty of the Windhover ‘s flying in the sky and the Variety of Nature revealing the beauty of Christ conceived through it. : : It was not published until 1914, when it was included as part of the collection Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Hopkins dedicated the poem “To Christ our Lord”: : “Windhover” is another name for the common kestrel ( Falco tinnunculus ) Bird which refers to the bird’s ability to hover in midair while hunting prey. The narrator admires the bird as it hovers in the air, suggesting that it controls the wind as a man may control a horse. The bird then suddenly pounce or moves down as if in an attack ; as Hopkins says ,”rebuffed the big wind” : :
Hopkins called “The Windhover” “the best thing [he] ever wrote”. The Poem appears in many anthologies and has lent itself to many interpretations including a proposed Metaphor for Christ or of divine manifestation which is a moment of sudden understanding or revelation. ( Also celebrated as Epiphany of our Lord 12 days after Christmas 🎄: Twelfth Day / King’s Day. : Visit of the 3 Wise men to the infant Jesus. ) : : : :
Notes for each of the lines Pending visit this post again later on to enjoy the appreciation of the poem V Jayaraj Pune India September 18 , 2023 : : : : : : : :
Original Artwork: Engraving after Hilton. (Photo by Edward Gooch Collection/Getty Images) : : John Clare ( 1793–1864) : : John Clare is “the quintessential Romantic poet,” according to William Howard writing in the Dictionary of Literary Biography. With an admiration of nature and an understanding of the oral tradition, but with little formal education, Clare penned numerous poems and prose pieces, many of which were only published posthumously. His works gorgeously illuminate the natural world and rural life, and depict his love for his wife Patty and for his childhood sweetheart Mary Joyce. Though his first book, Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery (1820), was popular with readers and critics alike, Clare struggled professionally for much of his life. His work only became widely read some hundred years after his death.: : scholars now recognize Clare as an important poet and prose writer. “As an observer of what it was like in England in the early nineteenth century, not only for the peasant but also from a peasant point of view, he is irreplaceable,” Clare depicted English countryside, childhood, and his own suffering. : : Praise the originality of “Autumn,” in which Clare describes the changing of the seasons: “ Thy pencil dashing its excess of shades, / Improvident of waste, till every bough / Burns with thy mellow touch / Disorderly divine.”
The Yellowhammer’s Nest : : By John Clare:
Just by the wooden brig a bird flew up, Frit by the cowboy as he scrambled down To reach the misty dewberry—let us stoop And seek its nest—the brook we need not dread, ‘Tis scarcely deep enough a bee to drown, So it sings harmless o’er its pebbly bed —Ay here it is, stuck close beside the bank Beneath the bunch of grass that spindles rank Its husk seeds tall and high—’tis rudely planned Of bleachèd stubbles and the withered fare That last year’s harvest left upon the land, Lined thinly with the horse’s sable hair. Five eggs, pen-scribbled o’er with ink their shells Resembling writing scrawls which fancy reads As nature’s poesy and pastoral spells— They are the yellowhammer’s and she dwells Most poet-like where brooks and flowery weeds As sweet as Castaly to fancy seems And that old molehill like as Parnass’ hill On which her partner haply sits and dreams O’er all her joys of song—so leave it still A happy home of sunshine, flowers and streams. Yet in the sweetest places cometh ill, A noisome weed that burthens every soil; For snakes are known with chill and deadly coil To watch such nests and seize the helpless young, And like as though the plague became a guest, Leaving a houseless home, a ruined nest— And mournful hath the little warblers sung When such like woes hath rent its little breast. — John Clare : : “The Yellowhammer’s Nest” Source : I Am: The Selected Poetry of John Clare (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2003) : : From poetryfoundation.org : For Educational Purposes only.
” The Yellow hamer’s Nest”, A 30 lines Bird Poem , in one block with no similar rhymes throughout yet in a style of singing a melodious song By John Clare is About the beautiful world of “Birds” disturbed by crowding weeds and predators. The Yellowhamer Bird struggle in the grim and stern world to makes its living , nesting and laying its eggs. : : : :
Notes for each of the lines Pending visit this post again later on to enjoy the appreciation of the poem V Jayaraj Pune India September 17 , 2023 : : : : : : : :
When God, disgusted with man, Turned towards heaven, And man, disgusted with God, Turned towards Eve, Things looked like falling apart.
But Crow Crow Crow nailed them together, Nailing heaven and earth together-
So man cried, but with God’s voice. And God bled, but with man’s blood.
Then heaven and earth creaked at the joint Which became gangrenous and stank- A horror beyond redemption. The agony did not diminish. Man could not be man nor God God.
“Crow , Blacker Than Ever ” A Bird Poem By Ted Hughes is About the creation of the myth from the first and second chapters of the book of Genesis from the Bible. consequences for the relationship between man and God after the eating of the forbidden fruit : : Things looked bad, as God ”Turned towards heaven ” and man ”Turned towards Eve”. : : It is usually believed that the crow is a symbol of bad luck and death. But some people believe that it is a symbol of life, magic and mysteries. Beside these “the crow” symbolizes intelligence, flexibility and destiny. Summing up we can say that “the crow” is an image that possess both positive and negative features. : : Whether, the Crow signify good or bad things, it keeps being an inspiration in literary works. In this poem, the crow is shown as the figure of the Trickster. Often trickster is defined as a mischievous or roguish figure in myth or folklore, often an animal, who typically makes up for physical weakness with cunning and subversive humor, or a boundary-crosser. The crow is a kind of revolt against opposition . From line one to five, the Crow is neither on God’s side nor is he on man’s side. : : ”When God, disgusted with man, Turned towards heaven, And man, disgusted with.
Crow is both mischievous and good. He forces them together. Things get worse.
King Of Carrion : : By Ted Hughes , London : : His palace is of skulls.
His crown is the last splinters Of the vessel of life.
His throne is the scaffold of bones, the hanged thing’s Rack and final stretcher.
His robe is the black of the last blood.
His kingdom is empty-
The empty world, from which the last cry Flapped hugely, hopelessly away Into the blindness and dumbness and deafness of the gulf
Returning, shrunk, silent
To reign over silence.
— Ted Hughes
“King Of Carrion”, A Bird Poem By Ted Hughes is About Vulture Crow as the symbol or clan of family of animals reminding death, and About the Cruelty of officials and About how selfish and brutal they are towards people. Because they do not care about anything and anyone except for their goods and benefits.They live on the sufferings of others and enjoy it.” The world is empty for them. The kingdom is empty”, resided by “skulls” and “the scaffold of bones.” Afterall the parasites live on the efforts of others. Thus, Hughes tries to detach himself from his audience and disregard the Public. : : Carrion is the dead and rotting body of an animal unfit for human food.Carrion Crows are black vulture found in America which are smaller than Turkey buzzard / New World Vulture, of South and Central America and South U. S. : : : :
“King of Carrion” is comprehensible and illustrative Poem from this fascinating yet unnerving series of Poems. Hughes’s most significant and far more experimental avant -garde work than his earlier poetry , is perhaps Crow (1970) which inspite of the fact that it has been widely praised also has divided critics. This book of Poetry combines an annihilative , bitter, and surreal view of the Universe alongside the simple, childlike verses. Sir Jonathan Bate , his Biographer described “Hughes’s ‘Crow’ as an ‘anti-bible’ Yet arguably Hughes’s Masterpiece.” Crow was edited several times across Hughes’ career. Within its composition he created a cosmology of symbols. Crow depicted as totemic object symbolic of a particular thing or poetic ideas of significance. Crow at times was simultaneously God, Nature and Hughes’ alter ego. The publication of Crow shaped Hughes’ poetic career as distinct from other forms of English Nature Poetry.: : : :
” King of carrion “, A Bird Poem By Ted Hughes Information Appreciation and poem Analysis Presented by V Jayaraj Pune India September 15 , 2023 : : : : : : : :
Poet Laureate of the U.K. ( 28.12. 1984 – 28 .10. 1998 following the death of John Betjeman : Philip Larkin, the preferred nominee, had declined, because of ill health and a loss of creative momentum, dying a year later ) : Ted Hughes ( August 17 , 1930 , Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, England — October 28 , 1998, aged 68 London, England ) : English poet, translator, and children’s writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1984 and held the office until his death. In 2008 The Times ranked Hughes fourth on its list of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945” : Alma mater Pembroke College, Cambridge : : Hughes was married to American poet Sylvia Plath from 1956 until her death by suicide in 1963 at the age of 30. He married with Carol Orchard in 1970. : : His last poetic work, Birthday Letters (1998), explored their relationship ; it won the 1999 Whitbread Prize for poetry. : : Hughes’s first collection, The Hawk in the Rain (1957), attracted considerable critical acclaim. In 1959 he won the Galbraith prize, which brought $5,000. His most significant work is perhaps Crow (1970), which whilst it has been widely praised also divided critics, combining an apocalyptic, bitter, cynical and surreal view of the universe with what sometimes appeared simple, childlike verse. Crow was edited several times across Hughes’ career. Within its opus he created a cosmology of the totemic Crow who was simultaneously God, Nature and Hughes’ alter ego. The publication of Crow shaped Hughes’ poetic career as distinct from other forms of English Nature Poetry. : : Hughes worked for 10 years on a prose poem, “Gaudete”: : In 1992 Hughes published Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being, a monumental work inspired by Robert Graves’s The White Goddess. : The book, considered Hughes’s key work of prose, had a mixed reception “divided between those who considered it an important and original appreciation of Shakespeare’s complete works, whilst others dismissed it as a lengthy and idiosyncratic appreciation of Shakespeare refracted by Hughes’s personal belief system”. Hughes himself later suggested that the time spent writing prose was directly responsible for a decline in his health. : : Also in 1992, Hughes published Rain Charm for the Duchy, collecting together for the first time his Laureate works, including poems celebrating important royal occasions. : : 1998, his Tales from Ovid won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award.Hughes’s definitive 1,333-page Collected Poems (Faber & Faber) appeared (posthumously) in 2003. A poem discovered in October 2010, “Last letter”, describes what happened during the three days leading up to Plath’s suicide. It was published in New Statesman on National Poetry Day, October 2010. Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy told Channel 4 News that the poem was “the darkest poem he has ever written” and said that for her it was “almost unbearable to read”Homage to Ted Hughes by Reginald Gray (2004), Bankfield Museum, Halifax.
Skylarks : : By Ted Hughes ( 17 August, 1930 – 28 October, 1998 ) , London , England : : : : : I The lark begins to go up Like a warning As if the globe were uneasy – Barrel-chested for heights Like an Indian of the high Andes, A whippet head, barbed like a hunting arrow, But leaden With muscle For the struggle Against Earth’s centre And leaden For ballast In the rocketing storms of the breath. Leaden Like a bullet To supplant Life from its centre.
II Crueller than owl or eagle A towered bird, shot through the crested head With the command, Not die But climb Climb Sing Obedient as to death a dead thing. III I suppose you just gape and let your gaspings Rip in and out through your voicebox O lark And sing inwards as well as outwards Like a breaker of ocean rolling the shingle O lark O song, incomprehensibly both ways – Joy! Help! Joy! Help! O lark
IV You stop to rest, far up, you teeter Over the drop. But not stopping singing Resting only for a second Dropping just a little Then up and up and up Like a mouse with drowning fur Bobbing and bobbing at the well-wall Lamenting, mounting a little – But the sun will not take notice And the earth’s centre smiles.
V My idleness curdles Seeing the lark labour near its cloud Scrambling In a nightmare difficulty Up through the nothing Its feathers thrash, its heart must be drumming like a motor, As if it were too late, too late. Dithering in ether Its song whirls faster and faster And the sun whirls The lark is evaporating Till my eye’s gossamer snaps and my hearing floats back widely to earth. After which the sky lies blank open Without wings, and the earth is a folded clod. Only the sun goes silently and endlessly on with the lark’s song. VI All the dreary Sunday morning Heaven is a madhouse With the voices and frenzies of the larks, Squealing and gibbering and cursing Heads flung back, as I see them, Wings almost torn off backwards – far up Like sacrifices set floating The cruel earth’s offerings The mad earth’s missionaries.
VII Like those flailing flames The lift from the fling of a bonfire Claws dangling full of what they feed on The larks carry their tongues to the last atom Battering and battering their last sparks out at the limit – So it’s a relief, a cool breeze When they’ve had enough, when they’re burned out And the sun’s sucked them empty And the earth gives them the O.K. And they relax, drifting with changed notes Dip and float, not quite sure if they may Then they are sure and they stoop And maybe the whole agony was for this The plummeting dead drop With long cutting screams buckling like razors But just before they plunge into the earth They flare and glide off low over grass, then up To land on a wall-top, crest up, Weightless, Paid-up, Alert, Conscience perfect. VIII Manacled with blood, Cuchulain listened bowed, Strapped to his pillar (not to die prone) Hearing the far crow Guiding the near lark nearer With its blind song “That some sorry little wight more feeble and misguided than thyself Take thy head Thine ear And thy life’s career from thee.”
— Ted Hughes
“Skylark’s”, A Bird Poem By Poet Laureate of the U.K. ( 28.12. 1984 – 28 .10. 1998 ) Ted Hughes ( August 17 , 1930 , Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, England — October 28 , 1998, aged 68 London, England ) is About The Songbird Skylark’s struggle for Skyward flight, up against the gravitational pull . ( Although Its Earthward connections of nest-building, mating , brooding, feeding and nurturing behaviours and habitat keep it depending solely on the ground.) : Hughes has given the Skylarks a ‘concretism‘ of an otherwise nebulous concept of cosmic energy ( in flying and hovering high up in the sky with singing for a long duration. ) : The skylark became a symbol of poetic inspiration for different generations of poets. However, Shelley depicts the skylark as a pure spirit of joy and happiness. Whereas , Hughes meaningfully explores aspects of cosmic energy. Animals Study shows that they instinctually follows the law of Nature and bodily acquired features ; their surroundings requiring them to gain by adaptive features and specific behaviour to exist among enemies , rivals , and competitors. As it is known the Skylarks respond according to their earthly habitats and spreading ; with advantageous struggles for food and safety, with energetic power in living ,defiance , and aggressions too. : : : :
Stanza I : : The descriptions of Skylarks depicted in Stanza 1 include “Barrel-chested for heights , A whippet head, barbed like a hunting arrow, leadenWith muscle For the struggle , Against Earth’s centre , leaden For ballast, In the rocketing storms of the breath , Leaden Like a bullet To supplant Life from its centre. ” : : These are the signs and symbols of functional aspects of Bodily or Biological Energy leaden with the features in the body of Skylark’s living and spreading in the Eurasian Regions of their habitats.,: ” Life from its Centre” ( last line ) and “Against Earth’s Centre” in the 1 St Stanza define the life , living habitat and adaptive requirements for Such leaden Energy.
Stanza II : : “Crueller than owl or eagle A towered bird, shot through the crested head” the opening lines are suggestive threat of the possible predatory by other bigger and more aggressive animals / birds / hunters. As we know, the Skylarks are vulnerable due to its small size , nesting on the ground , and features of ‘claws’ not finely suitable for living on the branches of the trees where they can not sustain living , nesting and brooding. ( up to 3 to 4 broods in summertime. ) So,As Hughes explains ,”With the command Not die But climb,ClimbSing Obedient as to death a dead thing.” : Hence skyward flight is a biological requirements and imitative representation of nature and behaviour of The Singing Birds : As the Animal study reveals Skylarks would remain in the sky with soaring/ hovering flight highand high up , singing in a high pitch together with chirpings for a longerduration at a time for 20 minutes or more. It can be out of their established behaviour of showing their Vital energy among the competitors for mating as well as for their own needs of Nurturing during a long flight using wider wings being noticed by the female Skylarks hatching the eggs in the nests on the ground. Both the parents look after the broods and nurturing and feed their young ones. They are recognised by their singing / long time songs rather than sights of the appearance. Hughes represents that The energetic struggle is reflected in the Skylark’s Songs coming out from their throats.
Stanza III: : Hughes represents the wide open expression of open mouthed astonishment shown by the word “gaping” and encourages The Skylarks in the lines , “let your gaspings Rip in and out through your voicebox O lark And sing inwards as well as outwards Like a breaker of ocean rolling the shingle O lark O song, incomprehensibly both ways – Joy! Help! Joy! Help!” ( In Stanza 3 ) : : : :
Stanza IV : : ” You stop to rest, far up, you teeter Over the drop. But not stopping singing Resting only for a second Dropping just a little Then up and up and up” .. . : : About Hughes’s Observation of The Skylark’s Upward Flight with resting only for a second” , but ” not stopping singing ” : : Further, ‘ moving up and down repeatedly quickly, and sportively by skylarks like “a mouse at the well wall” what Hughes calls ,”Bobbing , lamenting and mounting” can be noticed in Skylarks only by Earth with a smile, and this is not observable through the sky even by Sun in its daylight. : : : :
Stanza V : : The larks reach almost “near the clouds” where they “scramble” in climbing hurriedly and look awkward in such movements in a “nightmare difficulty ” / that is terrific unsetting difficulty “Up through nothing”/ in no respect – To no degree. : : As if it were too late, doing more and more labour as a result , its “feathers thrash” / blown away in completing a flight ; and , ” its heart ❤️ 💜 ❤️ 💜 drumming like a motor”/ that is , beating repeatedly yet in rhythm , like a motor : : Hughes thus, in pictorial manner , exemplify the Energy leaden , motion conversion in the flight of Skylarks. The Expression, “Dithering in ether Its song whirls faster and faster”suggests theroused and charged up motionwith which the Skylarks sing Songs with intense high pitch clarity spread rapidly through the layers of Air. “Seeing this labour “The Poet’s “idleness curdles”/ that is , bone- lazy state of being not working like a hard working Skylarks becomes solid. : The sun “whirls”/ revolves quickly : getting more intense with passing time raising more heat . : ” The lark is evaporating” , Meaning , The Singing of Lark becomes less intense and fades away with more time passing on fast. .. . ” Till my eye’s gossamer snaps and my hearing floats back widely to earth.” : That is, The Poet ‘s attention to the Sky high up for the sights of Skylark’s continued labour, drops through the Air down to the Earthly ground. : “After which the sky lies blank open Without wings, and the earth is a folded clod.”, Meaning , half of the globe has covered the other half of the globe ( “folded clod”) , and the sky lies clear , white and empty without any load of Skylarks as they seem as disappeared from the view of the Poet. : : And now “Only the sun goes silently and endlessly on with the lark’s song” still resonating atleast to the sun’s sensitivity. That is, the signs of Skylark’s Vibrating Energy have become a happening reality of hard working Skylark’s Singing , Chirping and Songs. The bird has attempted to release itself from the “Earth’s Centre” to gain freedom off the Gravitational pull. : : : :
Stanza VI : : : : About Exhausting Labour Of Skylarks in long Flight with Singing : : : : : : : The Poet sees “All the dull ( “dreary”) Sunday morning” A promised place of bliss and delight ( “Heaven”) has turned out as chaotic / “madhouse” as an end 🔚 result With the ( excessive ) “voices and frenzies of the larks, /Squealing” ( high pitched utterances in chirpings & singing ) and “gibbering”( incessantly ⏩ fast chattering ) and “cursing” ( irrelevant voices ) : : The Poet also notices that as a result of reckless movements while hovering over the sky almost near the clouds “Heads flung back” : ” Wings almost torn off backwards ” ( pulled forcefully ) “- far up / Like sacrifices set floating” which is summed up ironically as ,”The cruel earth’s offerings” ( of laborious Skylarks with recklessly long flights ) / “The mad earth’s missionaries” if image of sacrifice is not likeable ( As The earth were to offer this cruel sacrifice Or As if looked like “mad” 😡 representatives sent to the religious mission of converting some promised realm to the spreading doctrine, “far up” near the clouds)
Pending visit this post again later on to enjoy the appreciation of the Last Two Stanzas VII & VIII : V Jayaraj Pune India September 14 , 2023 : : : :
Shelley’s Skylark : : By Thomas Hardy ( 1840 – 1928 ) : : : : ………………………………………………: : Somewhere afield here something lies In Earth’s oblivious eyeless trust That moved a poet to prophecies – A pinch of unseen, unguarded dust
The dust of the lark that Shelley heard, And made immortal through times to be; – Though it only lived like another bird, And knew not its immortality.
Lived its meek life; then, one day, fell – A little ball of feather and bone; And how it perished, when piped farewell, And where it wastes, are alike unknown.
Maybe it rests in the loam I view, Maybe it throbs in a myrtle’s green, Maybe it sleeps in the coming hue Of a grape on the slopes of yon inland scene.
Go find it, faeries, go and find That tiny pinch of priceless dust, And bring a casket silver-lined, And framed of gold that gems encrust;
And we will lay it safe therein, And consecrate it to endless time; For it inspired a bard to win Ecstatic heights in thought and rhyme. — Thomas Hardy : : From ‘The neighbourhood of Leghorn’ : : March, 1887 From: poetry.com : For educational purposes only.
“Shelley’s Skylark”, A 24 lines Bird Poem in 6 Stanzas , By Thomas Hardy ( 1840 – 1928 ) is About Paying Tribute The death of Skylark. Hardy was an enthusiastic devotee of the poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley as a young man living with deep interest in great Poet’s Poetry. “Shelley’s Skylark” was written by Thomas Hardy during a trip to Italy that he and his wife Emma took in March and April 1887. He wrote several poems during the visit and others on their return, and these were later published in the “Poems of Pilgrimage” section of his 1901 collection “Poems of the Past and the Present”. : Hardy’s pilgrimage was largely a literary one to the land that had inspired the Romantic poets and where both Keats and Shelley had died. Hardy visited the graves of Keats and Shelley in Rome and also made a detour from Pisa to Livorno (Leghorn) where Shelley had lived for a short time in 1820 and where he wrote his “To a Skylark”.Shelley wrote “To a Skylark” in 1820 after hearing the bird’s distinctive calls while walking through the port city of Livorno, Italy. His Poem “To a Skylark” praises as a joyous “spirit”, and the purity of a Heavenly resided songbird’s music, later contrasting it with sad, hollow human communication.
“Shelley’s Skylark”, by Thomas Hardy is a simple , pleasing and envisioned figure of The Poet’s Mind. : : : :
Stanza 1 : : “Somewhere afield here something lies 1 In Earth’s oblivious eyeless trust2 That moved a poet to prophecies – 3 A pinch of unseen, unguarded dust4 : : lines 1 To 4 : : : :
About Earthward stand- point from where The Poet is looking at the Skylark when he says, ” A pinch of unseen , unguarded dust” ( line 4 ) , “lies Somewhere afield” ( line 1 ) , that is a place faraway from usual surrounding, may it be in or in to a field. : ” In Earth’s oblivious eyeless trust” ( line 2 ) , that is , reliable Earth’s unmindful sightlessness , ” That moved a poet to prophecies- ” ( line 3 ) , that is , divinely predictions or knowledge of the future uttered by a poet under inspirations. : : : :
Stanza 2 : : ” The dust of the lark that Shelley heard, 5 And made immortal through times to be; – 6 Though it only lived like another bird, 7 And knew not its immortality.”8 : : lines 5 To 8 : : : :
About ” immortality” of Skylark of which it is not aware of , yet Shelly “heard it’s dust” ( line 5 ) , / the remains , and “made a songbird immortal through times” ( line 6 ) in future. Unlike the “Sooner of the ground” as described by Shelley, Hardy ‘s Skylark’s Visuals are of Earthward , As he says, ” Though it only lived like another bird,” ( line 7 ) : Shelley heralded the Skylark , he visualised mostly by greeting songbird’s Songs he heard joyfully , saying, ” blithe the spirit / Bird thou never wert” : However , Hardy resolutely refuses moving even slightly by saying A Skylark ,” only lived like another bird,” ( line 7 ) , that is, A Skylark like other ordinary birds of the Earth, lived here only , and never lived a perpetual life after death. : : : :
Stanza 3 : : ” Lived its meek life; then, one day, fell – 9 A little ball of feather and bone; 10 And how it perished, when piped farewell, 11 And where it wastes, are alike unknown.”12 : : lines 9 To 12 : : : :
About Skylark’s “meek life”: A spiritless appearance , conformation and abidance by Skylark in its conventional living and behaving, and ultimate fate at the end of the life , described as , ” then, one day, fell – 9 A little ball of feather and bone; ” 10 ( lines 9 & 10 ) : : The Skylarks met with the End very much like other Birds. There was no known “piped farewell” , that is , Funeral Music was not tunefully played on pipes. ; Not known how it perished ( line 11 ) : Its remains run off or “waste(d) , are alike unknown.” ( line 12 ) : : : :
Stanza 4 : : ” Maybe it rests in the loam I view, 13 Maybe it throbs in a myrtle’s green, 14 Maybe it sleeps in the coming hue15 Of a grape on the slopes of yon inland scene.” 16 : : lines 13 To 16 : : : :
About A mystical loamy fate of A Skylark(s). : Hardynow views the resting place / or burial after its death described ironically. The Soul of Skylark(s) 🤔 “Maybe rests in the loam”, that is, in the fertile soil mixture of sand , clay and other organic materials of decaying plants and dead animals where Skylark(s)’ body – ball of feathers and bones would have been loamy ; Or , ” Maybe 🤔 (the soul) throbs in a myrtle ‘s green,” ( line 14 ) that is , transformed into the shape of new green life of shiny green leaves and blue 💙 – violet 💜 flowers 🌺🌹 of green myrtus Shrubs ; Or , ” Maybe 🤔 it sleeps 💤 in the coming hue ” ( line 15 ) that is , in highlights , it would suffuse with or take on some coloursawaited for it. This could be greenish 💚 or Purplish 💜” Of a grape on the slopes of yon island scene.” ( line 16 ) : : that is , an island 🏝️ island , distant but within sight. : : : :
Stanza 5 : : “Go find it, faeries, go and find 17 That tiny pinch of priceless dust, 18 And bring a casket silver-lined, 19 And framed of gold that gems encrust;” 20 : : lines 17 To 20 : : : :
About Beauty in silver 🥈 or gold 🪙or gems 💎 : : Hardy addresses faeries of the enchanted realm of fairies with a magical powers who are asked to go and find ( line 15 ) , That “tiny pinch of priceless dust,” ( line 18 ) And ” bring a silver – lined casket ,” ( line 19 ) , that is an ornate box/ jewel casket , or a box of coffin ⚰️, And ” framed 🖼️ of gold that gems encrust;” ( line 20 ) : The idea developed in Stanza 5 , is for less effective , successful or in desirable manner , Since An Earthward and Downward line from the earlier skyward , Heavenly and Spiritual inclinations of Romantic poets like Shelley, depicted by Hardy is towards material things.. The Beauty of loam , or of the myrtle’s green and of the hue on the grape 🍇 is shown more outstanding than that of silver or gold or gems. : : : :
Stanza 6 : : ” And we will lay it safe therein, 21 And consecrate it to endless time;22 For it inspired a bard to win23 Ecstatic heights in thought and rhyme.” 24 : : lines 21 To 24 : : : :
About dedication entirely for Shelley , his Poetic Creations and Cause to “endless time” : In What a memorable way, Hardy and Others in concordance with his Views expressed in this Poem, ” Shelley’s Skylark” , ” will lay the mystical remains of dust ( found out by the fairies as instructed ) safe forever. Why ⁉️, ” For it inspired a bard / lyric Poet to win / Ecstatic heights in thought 💭 and rhyme.” ( lines 23 & 24 ) : : As an “Ode to the incomparable Grandeur of the Natural World, and Especially its Spiritual Power, Shelley’s “To a Skylark” remains a perfectly illustrative Romantic poetry of high class of happiness 😊 / rhapsodic delight or joyous thrill. The poem’s Unconventional Form features a Song-likeRhyme Scheme , Spirited Rhythm and a zippy gait that markedly imitates the skylark’s Creation Calls and PaternalNurturing , Blissful Chirping and HeavenlySinging. : : : : The same views are propounded here by Thomas Hardy but with ironically , and whether it proved in the betterment of the Poetry of his time and the literary movements that were to follow the steps forwarded by them or What , is a matter of questionable Appreciation of Poetry with the NewerWays To come. : : : :
“Shelley’s Skylark”, A Bird Poem By Thomas Hardy Information Appreciation and poem Analysis Presented by V Jayaraj Pune India September 13 , 2023 : : : : : : : :
MADHU MALTI 