IF blackbird and thrush are the spring songsters of the garden; the skylark is of the countryside.
Various poets have celebrated the lark. Here are the opening verses of Shelley's paean to the little bird with the great voice.
TO A SKYLARK
Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird though never wert,
That from Heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.
Higher still and higher
From the earth thou springest
Like a cloud of fire;
The blue deep thou wingest,
And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.
In the golden lightning
Of the sunken sun,
O'er which clouds are bright'ning,
Thou dost float and run;
Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.
The pale purple even
Melts around thy flight;
Like a star of Heaven
In the broad daylight,
Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight.
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