To a Skylark Group
Question:
sangita
Student
College - Senior
What is the meaning of the phrase ''blithe spirit'' in Shelley's ''To a Skylark?"
Answers:
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lit24 Teacher
DoctorateeNotes Editor
Posted by lit24 on Tuesday June 23, 2009 at 6:51 AMThe word "blithe" is an Old English word literally meaning 'carefree, happy and lighthearted.'
"Spirit" of course would mean 'an incorporeal supernatural being.'
Shelley begins his poem by saluting and greeting the skylark by calling it a "blithe spirit," because the skylark is a bird which is rarely visible and only its melodious song is heard by the people. The sweet song of the skylark reveals to Shelley that unlike ordinary mortals like himself it's absolutely carefree.
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baby522 Student
High School - 9th GradePosted by baby522 on Tuesday July 28, 2009 at 12:23 PMin the poem " to a sky lark " Shelley is listening to the song of a bird,which is itself invisible. it seems to the poet that the bird, while singing, soaring high above the ground,has it lost its physical existence and has become a spirit.Shelley is here trying to represent the bird as an abstract quality of pure joy, a quality so poignantly missing in the humans
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