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The Image of a Bird as a Form of Nature
In Percy Bysshe Shelley's „To a Skylark‟ and in John Keats' „Ode to a Nightingale‟ the image
of the bird is used both formally as a creature of pure nature and flight, as well as metaphorically
as a symbol of the unreachable and spiritual connection to a higher form. Both poets choose to
rely upon a common species known to man, and yet both choose uncommon type of bird to write
about. This essay will argue that the birds promote a connection between reality and the
unknown above us which makes them prime muses to frame in poems about life and the idea of
an eventual death. This can see through the poems' structures, use of rhythm and meter, the
spiritual connection the birds symbolize, as well as the poets‟ connections to the birds and what
it represents. The birds provide their respective poet with inspiration of the natural world and the
unknown mysteries to man.
Shelly‟s poem, „To a Skylark‟, is focused around the idea of symmetry and proper flow. Her
work is made up of 21 stanzas all consisting of five lines. While the pattern within each stanza is
not even, consisting of 5 lines, each stanza follows the same rules. The first four lines of each
stanza are in trochaic trimeter while the fifth remains in iambic hexameter. This poem relies
upon its repetitive form to imply a relation between how it would be read and how a skylark
would sing. While a skylark does not sing in ABABB form, its call is repetitive and stays in a
constant rhythm as Shelly‟s poem does. The form suits her intention of learning from the skylark
and that its “harmonious madness would flow from [her] lips so.” (Shelly, Line 104) She is
attempting to learn by replicating the bird‟s method, hoping to receive the same inspiration from
the heavens. Keats‟ „Ode to a Nightingale‟ is broken into eight stanzas and the poem‟s form
produces a dramatic effect upon the reader. The use of interchanging short and long vowel
patterns leaves the reader with a feeling that the poem cannot come to a true consensus on what
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the poet wants because Keats may not know what he really wants. The poem relies on assonance
which represents the constant questioning Keats relies upon. Unlike „To a Skylark‟, Keats‟
finishes his ode with a question, “[d]o I wake or sleep?”(Keats, Line 80), asking the audience
whether he writes this from the conscious mind or from the unconscious. He frames the structure
of his poem around this idea of the unknown mind set with repetition and the combination of
sonnet styles, both Shakespearean and Petrarchan. The two poems frame their inspiration around
their respective birds and frame their poetry around the poem‟s intentions. While Shelly tries to
understand the bird, her audience would hear the same rhythm that would come from the
skylark‟s call. Keats knows that here “men sit and hear each other groan” (Line 24) and accepts
that only when he listens to the Nightingale can he ever hope to understand the unknown, and his
audience understands this through Keats‟ interchanging form.
The song of a skylark comes from up above the poet, almost as if from the heavens. Shelley‟s
„To a Skylark‟ plays upon this idea and frames the bird as the connection between the realm of
man and the supernatural heaven above. The skylark is describes as “strains of unpremeditated
art” (Shelly, Line 5) which is why the poet would link the bird‟s origin to Heaven, as “Heaven is
overflowed.” (Shelly, Line 30) The skylark becomes a transcendent being of inspiration that
overflowed from the heavens to become the muse of originality. The unpremeditated art is a
connection to the originality of the skylark‟s song which is why the poet turns to such a muse for
inspiration. The skylark can only sing while in flight which is when the bird is at its highest point
relative to the poet. This sense of dominating height instils the skylark with a sense of power and
its proximity to heaven instils a sense of immortality, in both its song and body. The poet wishes
the bird to “Teach [him] half the gladness That thy brain must know” (Keats, Lines 101 -102) it
hopes of leaving his mortality behind him and understanding a pure form of originality. While
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„To a Skylark‟ represents the harmony between pure originality and the immortality of a song,
„Ode to a Nightingale‟ connects the bird to a symbolic representation of natures‟ essence. This is
shown through the bird‟s depiction as a “light-winged Dryad of the trees”, connecting a fictitious
creature of nature to the innocence of the nightingale. Furthermore, the mention of grass, moss
and describing his soundings as green envelops the reader with a feeling of nature, yet the green
also represents the envy Keats‟ has for the bird‟s freedom and flight. This idea of jealousy is
exemplified in the repetition of “That I might drink” (Keats, Line 2) and “I had drunk” (Keats,
Line 19) bringing to mind the drowning effect intoxication brings and how it can act as an escape
so, in this case, the author can dull the pain of hearing the nightingale‟s song. The song is
beautiful and yet only reminds Keats of what he is not, inspired and immortal. While physically
the birds are just as fragile as we are their songs are the same from one bird to the next which
provides the illusion of a bird which can never die and lives a dream that every poet desires. This
is to have a beautiful piece of art live on after they perish, and know that while they are human,
their work lives on in others. Both poems connect the audience to the natural world while also
presenting the idea of the supernatural in the skylark‟s originality and the nightingale‟s immortal
song. In both cases the birds are seen, both physically and spiritually, above men and act as a
muse for their work.
The poets, Shelly and Keats, both find a connection between themselves and the birds
through a common mortal life and yet both long to know what the life of a bird is like. The
skylark for example must fly to sing, just as a poet must write to remain well known; yet, their
differences are found in the way they perceive one another. While Shelly seems to “pine for what
is not” (Shelly, Line 87) and desperately wants to be the skylark, Keats simply wishes to “listen;
and, for many a time” (Keats, Line 51) until he understands the nightingale. Both authors wish
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simply to know what the birds know and feel the true inspiration that allows each bird to sing its
song. Each poet is consumed by their muse and yet this suffering each goes through allows them
to write brilliant pieces of work. The birds become their inspiration and while they can never
achieve their dreams of experience from the birds‟ perspectives, they are inspired simply by the
songs they hear. Shelly leaves the audience with a statement expressing that “The world should
listen then–as I am listening now.” (Shelly, Line 105) This line expresses our ability, as the
audience, to learn from something we may not fully understand and Shelly‟s abandonment of her
desire to „be‟ the skylark and simply listen. This ending relates to the general structure of Keats‟
„Ode to a Nightingale‟ as it contrasts the idea of knowledge to the unknown. The unknown is the
bird‟s experience, while the knowledge is what we can take from the songs, even without the
ability to understand them. This allows the poet to see the bird as an extension of nature and
accept the bird‟s originally as their own work‟s inspiration. In both poems the songs the birds
sing bring both glorious and depressing emotions as inspirations. The skylark inspires our
sweetest thoughts and yet “Our sweetest songs are those that tell of the saddest thought.”(Shelly,
Line 90) As an audience we are left to question whether, like the songs, the poets become great
only after they have passed on from mortality. Keats‟ feels his “sense[s], as though of hemlock
[he] had drunk” (Keats, Line 2), bring to mind Socrates‟ final stand by drinking the hemlock to
end his life. His death is well known because of his choice, which may relate the idea the Keats‟
feeling the most inspired when he feels closest to death. These feelings the birds‟ endow the
poets with is the inspiration they require to write and their muses are what has them question
what is known and what we must accept as inspiration.
In both poems the poets choose to flow their respective muses even if they cannot fully
comprehend what the songs mean. The songs themselves mean nothing to an audience but can be
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seen rather as pure original inspiration of the unknown. This unknown is what inspires because
unlike the songs of the birds we are not immortal and must use our feelings of mortality to
generate originality. This essay has demonstrated through the use of the poems' structures,
rhythm and meter, spiritual connections and the poets‟ connections to the birds, that the birds
become prime muses because we cannot understand them and this unknown song they sing
leaves the poets with only raw emotion and inspiration to write.
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Work Cited
Keats, John. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Age of Romanticism 2nd Ed.
“Ode to a Nightingale.” Broadview Press. Peterborough, Ontario. 2010. 827-828. Print.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Age of
Romanticism 2nd Ed. “To a Skylark.” Broadview Press. Peterborough, Ontario. 2010. 738740. Print.