Shelley's Skylark. Poem by Thomas Hardy

Shelley's Skylark.

Rating: 2.8


Somewhere afield here something lies
In Earth's oblivious eyeless trust
That moved a poet to prophecies -
A pinch of unseen, unguarded dust

The dust of the lark that Shelley heard,
And made immortal through times to be; -
Though it only lived like another bird,
And knew not its immortality.

Lived its meek life; then, one day, fell -
A little ball of feather and bone;
And how it perished, when piped farewell,
And where it wastes, are alike unknown.

Maybe it rests in the loam I view,
Maybe it throbs in a myrtle's green,
Maybe it sleeps in the coming hue
Of a grape on the slopes of yon inland scene.

Go find it, faeries, go and find
That tiny pinch of priceless dust,
And bring a casket silver-lined,
And framed of gold that gems encrust;

And we will lay it safe therein,
And consecrate it to endless time;
For it inspired a bard to win
Ecstatic heights in thought and rhyme.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
John Pendrey 07 July 2016

The Japanese writer Natsume Sōseki also quotes Shelley's Skylark in the first few pages of my favourite book, 'Kusamakura'. You could say Sōseki has made Shelley's poem an 'uta makura' (poetic pillow) .

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Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy

Dorchester / England
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