I STOOD knee-deep within a field of grain, And felt a sudden flash of facile wings That off the ground rose straight into the blue. And looking, saw it was the lark, a wight In all my days I had not glimpsed at home, And now must find beyond the foam-white seas For the first time. This child of ecstasy Shook down roulades of song, and clove the air Up, up and ever up toward very heaven, A speck of buoyant life against the sky, And bird-kind's one embodiment of soul In God-aspiring flight. Across my mind Rushed Shakespeare's hymn and Shelley's heavenly lay, Wherein this bird, etherealized, becomes More beautiful, and less of mortal mold; Until half-dazed I stood, nor hardly knew Whether I heard the descant of the lark, Or those dear singers of the human race Make subtle music for my brooding ear. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON THE PROSPECT OF PLANTING ARTS AND LEARNING IN AMERICA by GEORGE BERKELEY THE FLYING DUTCHMAN by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON THE IMMORTALITY OF LOVE by ROBERT SOUTHEY THE SWALLOWS by AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS A SCHOOL ECLOGUE by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD A PREPARATORY HYMNE TO THE WEEK OF MEDITACIONS UPON, & DEVOUT EXERCISE by JOSEPH BEAUMONT THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 40. FAREWELL TO JULIET (2) by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |