English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 382. To the Skylark |
| | | William Wordsworth (1770–1850) |
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| ETHEREAL minstrel! pilgrim of the sky! | |
| Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound? | |
| Or while the wings aspire, are heart and eye | |
| Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground? | |
| Thy nest which thou canst drop into at will, | 5 |
| Those quivering wings composed, that music still! | |
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| To the last point of vision, and beyond | |
| Mount, daring warbler!—that love-prompted strain | |
| —’Twixt thee and thine a never-failing bond— | |
| Thrills not the less the bosom of the plain: | 10 |
| Yet might’st thou seem, proud privilege! to sing | |
| All independent of the leafy Spring. | |
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| Leave to the nightingale her shady wood; | |
| A privacy of glorious light is thine, | |
| Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood | 15 |
| Of harmony, with instinct more divine; | |
| Type of the wise, who soar, but never roam— | |
| True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home. | |
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