the symbolism of shelley's to a skylark

8/13/2019 The Symbolism of Shelley's to a Skylark

1/4

The Symbolism of Shelley's "To a Skylark"Author(s): E. Wayne MarjarumReviewed work(s):Source: PMLA, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Sep., 1937), pp. 911-913Published by: Modern Language AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/458692.

Accessed: 12/12/2011 04:12

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at.http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Modern Language Associationis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to PMLA.

http://www.jstor.org
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mlahttp://www.jstor.org/stable/458692?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/458692?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mla


2/4

E. Wayne Marjarum. Wayne Marjarumtains some shrewd comments on some of his early writings. The criticism of thefirst Discourse is like Kippis's, only more vehement.12Although his enthusiasmfor Rousseau is far too extravagant, it was even exceeded two years later byArthur Young, whose Letters Concerningthe Present State of the French Nation(1769) declared Rousseau to be one of the most remarkable men that everappeared in the world, whose sentiments do not flow from caprice, whimsical-ness, or a phantastic love of being different from other people, but from aphilosophical, genuine, and consistent, originality of character. 13Young, in-deed, later changed his mind; but his opinion at this time is one of many whichpoint to the existence of a vigorous, if not widespread, sympathy for Rousseau'sideas during the first twenty years of the reception of his works in England.RICHARDB. SEWALLYale University

12 See Fuseli,Remarks, tc. (London,1767),2-19.13SeeYoung,Letters, tc. (London,1769),351-360. Theentirepassagewasreprintednthe MonthlyReview,XL Feb., 1769),109-113.9. THE SYMBOLISM OF SHELLEY'S TO A SKYLARK

THE latter part of Shelley's To a Skylark has been interpreted by ProfessorIrving T. Richards as an impassioned address to an ideal being isolated frommundanity, to whom the poet addresses rhetorical questions concerning thesource of his ideal's inspiration. ' These questions begin in line 71, and heraldShelley's recital of the world's woe and his own noble impatience with his ownachievement. Before this point the poem is descriptive; one is aware mainly ofthe rapturous singing of the lark, and only afterward comes the reiteration ofthe ideal being's full isolation from mundanity. 2 But a comparison of theimagery of the first fifty lines with that of other poems in which Shelley dealswith an ideal being transcending common experience shows that here also hispurpose and method were determined by the dualism inherent in much of hisprofoundest speculation, and that the descriptive parts of the poem bear thesame stamp as the reflective stanzas.The symbolic significance of much of Shelley's descriptive verse has beentraced to Shelley's haunting sense of an ideal beauty, unknown but manifestingitself fragmentarily through the apertures of sense and in the intuitions of hisnoblest moments. The unseen Power addressed in the Hymn to IntellectualBeauty becomes incarnate in the radiant maidens who appear in very manyof the poems.3 In almost every case, the beauty of the apparition is born uponthe senses by its own inner radiance; as a foil to this effulgence, we find eitherthat the light is rendered supportable by a veil, lest the beholder, Actaeon-like,be destroyed by the beauty of the naked idea; or that the glowing being herselfbecomes invisible, dark with excessive bright.

1 ANote on Source nfluencesn Shelley'sCloud ndSkylark, PMLA,L(1935),562-567. 2 Loc.cit.3 BenjaminP. Kurtz, ThePursuitof Death New York,1933).

tains some shrewd comments on some of his early writings. The criticism of thefirst Discourse is like Kippis's, only more vehement.12Although his enthusiasmfor Rousseau is far too extravagant, it was even exceeded two years later byArthur Young, whose Letters Concerningthe Present State of the French Nation(1769) declared Rousseau to be one of the most remarkable men that everappeared in the world, whose sentiments do not flow from caprice, whimsical-ness, or a phantastic love of being different from other people, but from aphilosophical, genuine, and consistent, originality of character. 13Young, in-deed, later changed his mind; but his opinion at this time is one of many whichpoint to the existence of a vigorous, if not widespread, sympathy for Rousseau'sideas during the first twenty years of the reception of his works in England.RICHARDB. SEWALLYale University

12 See Fuseli,Remarks, tc. (London,1767),2-19.13SeeYoung,Letters, tc. (London,1769),351-360. Theentirepassagewasreprintednthe MonthlyReview,XL Feb., 1769),109-113.9. THE SYMBOLISM OF SHELLEY'S TO A SKYLARK

THE latter part of Shelley's To a Skylark has been interpreted by ProfessorIrving T. Richards as an impassioned address to an ideal being isolated frommundanity, to whom the poet addresses rhetorical questions concerning thesource of his ideal's inspiration. ' These questions begin in line 71, and heraldShelley's recital of the world's woe and his own noble impatience with his ownachievement. Before this point the poem is descriptive; one is aware mainly ofthe rapturous singing of the lark, and only afterward comes the reiteration ofthe ideal being's full isolation from mundanity. 2 But a comparison of theimagery of the first fifty lines with that of other poems in which Shelley dealswith an ideal being transcending common experience shows that here also hispurpose and method were determined by the dualism inherent in much of hisprofoundest speculation, and that the descriptive parts of the poem bear thesame stamp as the reflective stanzas.The symbolic significance of much of Shelley's descriptive verse has beentraced to Shelley's haunting sense of an ideal beauty, unknown but manifestingitself fragmentarily through the apertures of sense and in the intuitions of hisnoblest moments. The unseen Power addressed in the Hymn to IntellectualBeauty becomes incarnate in the radiant maidens who appear in very manyof the poems.3 In almost every case, the beauty of the apparition is born uponthe senses by its own inner radiance; as a foil to this effulgence, we find eitherthat the light is rendered supportable by a veil, lest the beholder, Actaeon-like,be destroyed by the beauty of the naked idea; or that the glowing being herselfbecomes invisible, dark with excessive bright.

1 ANote on Source nfluencesn Shelley'sCloud ndSkylark, PMLA,L(1935),562-567. 2 Loc.cit.3 BenjaminP. Kurtz, ThePursuitof Death New York,1933).

91111


3/4

Comments and CriticismOn this basis is constructed much of the imagery of the first fifty lines ofTo a Skylark. The similes which they employ are for the most part trans-

formations of the feminine symbols by means of which Shelley habitually soughtto give tangible form to his metaphysical concepts. Of all that he might havesung, and that others have sung, about the lark, his mind dwells upon thewonder that the skylark remains invisible while its being, like that of the ideal,is inferred from the aura of beauty which fills the world of the listener. Thataspect of his experience which first captured his fancy and led to self-questioningwas the antithesis between common perception as a way of knowing, and themore exquisite awareness which proceeds from inference- Dear, and yetdearer for its mystery.He immediately develops his figure through his favorite medium, radianceand light; and in the fourth stanza comes the statement of theme which runsthrough most of the next six: Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight.First the lark becomes a star melting In the broad daylight, and then themoon vanishing in the light of a white dawn Until we hardly see-we feel thatit is there. Here the skylark is conceived in the same imagery as the incarnateIdea of The Triumph of Life, who, in the interpretation of Mr. Kurtz, sym-bolizes ideal beauty:4

And the fairshapewaned n the coming ight,As veil by veil the silent splendourdropsFromLucifer,amidthe chrysoliteOfsunrise,ere it tingethe mountain-tops;Andas the presenceof that fairestplanet,Althoughunseen, s felt by one whohopes ...So knew I in that light's severe excessThe presenceof that Shapewhich on the streamMoved,as I movedalongthe wilderness 412-426).

Note the antithesis implied, in both poems, between the verbs see and feel. Thenext simile again employs the moon, the orbed maiden now being obscured bycloud, but yet evident by its radiance: The moon rains our her beams, andHeaven is overflowed. Once again, the Shadow of beauty unbeheld. In theeighth stanza he presents the ideal shining with a glorious radiancewhich clothesor even hides the form whence it emanates:

Like a Poet hiddenIn the light of thought(36-37).Turn now to The Witch of Atlas:

A lovely lady garmentedn lightFromher ownbeauty (81-82).In Una Favola also appears the maiden so lovely as scarcely to be visible, andin Epipsychidion he tells us that in the visioned wanderings of his youth,4Op.cit.,p. 332.

912


4/4

E. WayneMarjarumShemet me, robed n suchexceedingglory,That I beheldhernot (199-200).

The following stanza likening the skylark to the maiden withdrawn fromcommon sight in secret hour continues the theme in perfect, but not habitualimagery: the divine emanation is sound rather than light. One more stanza:the glow-worm in its dell of dew, Among the flowers and grass, which screenit from the view. The image is analogous to the maidens of the other poems,except that here the flowers and grass form the veil. It has the same juxta-position of elements as the veiled and luminous maiden of Alastor, or the Witchof Atlas, who took threads of mist and light and star-beams,

And with these threadsa subtle veil she wove-A Shadow or the splendour f her love (151-152).

These stanzas of To a Skylark are hence stamped with Shelley's nativeway of viewing things. Over the entire poem presides his awareness of two modesof being, the ideal and the actual. In the descriptive stanzas the ideal is mani-fested despite the barriers of sense; in the latter stanzas Shelley imaginativelyprojects himself to a point of vantage, the ideal being's full isolation frommundanity.It should be observed that Shelley's first perception of the skylark as hiddenis not necessarily the result of a philosophical system, but may be a matter ofcommon experience. The similes which follow must also present the analogyof hidden essences partially revealed. Such an interpretation is simple and logi-cal; it implies that Shelley was objectively aware during composition of theneed of maintaining that analogy and took an artistic means to secure it. Theconsistency of the descriptive stanzas is thus logically accounted for; but alogical unity between those and later stanzas is less readily apparent.The alternative interpretation does not seek a formal unity between the twogroups, but rather a native unity born of common origin in a unique personality.It is supported by the fact that a series of felicitous similes corresponding to hisannounced purpose ( What is most like thee? ) are in a significant number ofinstances constructed of accidents of light and shade similar to those which Shel-ley habitually employed to represent the ideal being which the skylark itselffinally symbolizes. Shelley has recorded a particular experience, the song of anunseen bird; this experience he has interpreted in conformity with his pro-foundest thoughts just as Wordsworth felt during the song of the unseen cuckooa recollected emotion linking him to boyhood and therefore to the master-lightof all his seeing. If this be true, the descriptive stanzas bear an original relation-ship to the reflective stanzas in which lies the basic unity of the poem, and theymay best be viewed as the inevitable expression of a mind so constituted.

E. WAYNE MARJARUMUniversity of Rochester

913

the symbolism of shelley's to a skylark

Documents