Skylark By Shelley example essay topic

Do you agree that a poem charts a developing thought? Base your answer on the poems "To autumn" and "To a skylark"! In the two poems "To autumn" by Keats and "To a skylark" by Shelley, we can see a similar type of idea, the idea of a developing chart. The poets are exploring their thoughts and are developing emotions.

Both poets are reconstructing an argument, a train of consciousness. In "To autumn", Keats is describing the beauty and ripeness of autumn and is relating that to life and the time passing by. Shelley is describing an even wider range in "To a skylark". He is showing the beauty, the energy and the absolute joy of a skylark, relating to his feelings about it.

I will start with "To autumn". In this poem, Keats is describing his interpretation of autumn, the season of beauty and ripeness. He relates the poem to life, watching the time passing by. This already begins in the first verse. Keats is talking about the fruitfulness, a symbol of growing and freshness. "The maturing sun" shows us, that Keats does not mean heat, but the sun, that made things grow, becoming beautiful and creating the base of a wonderful and green world.

The autumn is the time, when you reap the fruits for the vine. They are ripe and especially tasty and their colours are bright and strong. Moreover he is talking about the ripeness of the fruit in general, that this clime of autumn fills the fruits with ripeness to the core, so that the whole fruit is tasty and beautiful. Here, Keats is playing with the senses of taste and touch. You can really feel the atmosphere, the warmth of the sun, the smell of fresh landscape and taste the ripeness of all kind of fruits. Keats is also writing about the plants.

The summer with its heat has dried out the plants, taking away all vitality and beauty. The conditions of autumn made them grow in the brightest colours and the bees are heading for these plants, flying though the endless warm days of autumn. So, in the first verse, Keats is introducing the beauty of autumn, especially with the aspect of time, that made the whole world ripe. He shows the colours and the warmth of autumn and creates an atmosphere of brightness and vitality of this world. Keats begins with his thoughts and it seems as if he develops emotions, which you can feel because of his description. In the second verse, Keats is writing about the autumn as a person as he uses a lot of personification.

He addresses the autumn, who is sitting on a reaped granary floor. This picture again shows the ripeness, because the grain is ripe and is ready to be reaped. The strong wind flows over the countryside and blows all the beautiful smells of poppies and flowers into the sky. Here, Keats is showing the aspect of power, but still combined with brightness and fragrance.

That is an image of smell, which is brought over the whole landscape. The time is passing by and the last oozing's show that you can nearly see the time dying away. Here, Keats is discovering a whole new aspect. He relates his poem to life by using personification and describing the autumn as a person that watches the time passing by. Keats compares this wonderful season of autumn to a human's life, the wonderful time, that starts to pass by. So, he is going further and adding a new view onto his poem.

In the third verse, Keats is criticising the spring. He cannot hear the spring's melody, because the autumn has its own melody, too. Here, he is addressing the reader again. He knows the answer and shows that by this perhaps rhetorical question. You can watch this soft and wonderful day end and you hear a choir of gnats, whose melody is floating on the water of a river. Here again, Keats is using the sense of sound.

He is talking about a wonderful melody, the gentle rush of the river. The air is full of twitter from the birds, flying through the mild wind. The full-grown lambs show again the ripeness of this season. They have grown, being very strong and perhaps even majestic. The day is really going to end and with the day, autumn is going to end. He is talking about the sinking light and here, Keats' thought is ending, with the end or perhaps even death of autumn.

The time has come to go away. Keats is again relating his poem to life but in a stronger way, because in this last verse, Keats clearly showing the end of the day. So, "To autumn" underlines the statement, that a poem is charting a developing thought. Keats begins with a description of a fairy, wonderful landscape, where everything is juicy and you can hear, smell, taste and feel the atmosphere of ripeness.

Keats is drawing a picture of beauty. Everything is filled with vitality, like a human, that is in the prime of his life. But this impression begins to change in the second verse. Keats is going further. He is describing the autumn as a person, who is still watching the beauty of autumn, especially the smell of poppies and flowers, but also the begin of this beauty's end. The time is passing hour by hour.

And here, Keats is comparing his poem to life. A human still sees the beauty of his, but also realises, that he the time is passing by relentlessly. The time of beauty and power is nearly over. And then, in the third verse, is seems as if the had come. Keats wants us not to look back, because the autumn has its own melody and beauty.

The day is slowly dying, and with the day, the autumn is dying, too. So, this picture of beauty is nearly over. The time has arrived, when the light is sinking and wind is dying. The poem slowly begins to shift direction, from this absolute beauty to the sinking sun. The relation to life is really implicit.

He doesn't make it very obvious. Keats has the thought of beauty and ripeness, which develops into a time, when you can feel the end coming nearer and at the end, the time has come and the day is going to end. He develops his thought of time passing by and based on this poem, I absolutely agree to the statement, that a poem chart a developing thought. "To a skylark" by Shelley shows the beauty, strength and joy of the skylark.

But his poem is compared with "To autumn" written in a more open way. He is describing a lot more ideas than Keats, so that you have got the feeling of more variety. The poem is written in an explicit and clear way. Shelley really makes it obvious, what he wants to say. The poem is beginning with an apostrophizing of the skylark. Shelley addresses the skylark.

And from the beginning, he makes clear, that to him the skylark is not a physical object. He is describing the skylark as a creature of art, a creature from Heaven, a creature of joy. The first impression is, that Shelley is admiring the skylark. And that continues in the second verse. He is comparing the skylark with a cloud of fire, which shows energy, dynamism, warmth and spirit. He introduces to us, what the skylark means to him: a creature of energy, holy spirit and not comparable with anything human.

That is the beginning of his thought and description. In the next verse, Shelley is describing the skylark in the golden sunlight. He uses very positive, bright and also visual. The skylarks seems even brighter now, but not because of her optics - we cannot see her. But her voice is filling the heart with joy. That is, what makes the skylark so interesting and even holy.

From the sinking sun, we move to the purple evening in the next verse. Also in the evening, the skylark seems as a creature of Heaven. It doesn't matter if it is evening, we can still hear the voice. This impression continues in the next verse, too. The moon is shining, and Shelley is describing that he sees the moon and hears the skylark.

The moon is a visual symbol of romantic, and in Shelley's opinion the voice of the skylark is the acoustic symbol of romantic. In the next verse still, when it is night, Shelley is keeping the idea of the acoustic beauty of the skylark, whose sound fills the earth and Heaven, that Heaven seems to be overflowed. So, Shelley is using a hyperbole to show us, how unique and wonderful the skylark is. In these four verses, Shelley is keeping the idea of describing the skylark's beauty, but this thought is developing and is filled with emotion.

He begins with the skylark in the golden sunlight, moves on to the evening, the dawn and the night. During all those states, Shelley still describes the skylark as a creature of Heaven, but he is doing that in different situations, he is going further and further with that thought and brings variety into it. In the seventh verse, his thought is developing again. Shelley is looking for a comparison with the skylark and realises, that we know nearly nothing about it, because it is more than just physical.

Then, in the next verse, Shelley seems to have found a comparison. He compares the skylark to a poet. He expresses himself and shows emotion by writing about unbidden hymns. More over, Shelley wants to shows us the power of creativity, linked with that the power of poetry and the skylark has that power of creativity. Here, Shelley relates the poem to himself by writing about the poetry.

This impression continues. He is comparing the skylark with a maiden in a palace tower, which shows us, how untouchable and unreachable the skylark is. To him, that skylark is a symbol of love. Here, Shelley brings a new aspect into the poem. He compares the skylark. Having described the beauty of the skylark before, he now shows us, that this bird is unreachable.

Shelley's consciousness is still developing. The next interesting point is the use of the senses. He is talking about the skylark as a golden glowworm, the symbol of majesty and again the symbol, that this bird is not reachable. Shelley is comparing the skylark with a rose and flowers, which is an image of smell and he is talking about the sound as joy and freshness. From then, the poem seems to shift a bit the direction, because Shelley integrates him or perhaps us into the poem. To him, the bird is equal to spirit and he is asking the bird to teach us that spirit and again he shows, that the skylark is elevated above the normal by using the expression "a flood of rapture so divine".

There is something lacking and Shelley wants to find out what it is. He is addressing the skylark and is asking, where all this joy comes from. To him, this bird is filled with joy that strongly, that sadness or languor or annoyance could never be. He himself instead feels that languor and sadness. In his opinion, the skylark has the knowledge about death and mortality.

If we look into the past and the future, the humans have never felt something without at least a bit of pain. Even the sweetest moments have a part of sadness. Even if we didn't know feelings like sadness, pain or hate, we couldn't reach the joy of the skylark. If the skylark would teach Shelley half of its gladness, that would be enough to make the whole world listen, as he is doing at the moment. This last part shows a different direction. Shelley involves himself and addresses the skylark several times.

He wants the skylark to teach him that joy, because the humans have never felt that joy and the skylark has never felt sadness or fear. So, he gives the poem a new aspect and makes the poem therefore develop into a really interesting direction. Shelley has one main thought: the skylark, this not physical, beautiful, powerful animal, filled with joy, unreachable and perhaps majestic. But this thought is described with a lot variety and several ideas.

And in the end, Shelley gives the poem an interesting change. So, based on this poem, I would also agree, that a poem charts a developing thought. I absolutely agree to the statement, that a poem charts a developing thought. Both, "To autumn" and "To a skylark" prove that. The two authors develop a thought.

They are exploring their mind, each in a different way: Keats relates his poem to life, he shows, how transitory life is. He does that in a very implicit way, which makes the poem really interesting and which absolutely proves the statement. Shelley has one main thought. But this thought is extracted in a lot of ideas and variety.

He makes it very obvious, what he wants to say, from the first line on. Then you can follow his line of thoughts, that goes further and further. So, in my opinion the change at the end of the poem clearly proves, that the statement above is correct.