To a Sky-Lark

Composed 1805.—Published 1807

The Poem

[Rydal Mount, 1825.A—I. F.]

In pencil opposite,

"Where there are no skylarks; but the poet is everywhere."

In the edition of 1807 this is No. 2 of the "Poems, composed during a Tour, chiefly on foot."B In 1815 it became one of the "Poems of the Fancy."—Ed.

The Poem

text variant footnote line number

Up with me! up with me into the clouds!
For thy song, Lark, is strong;
Up with me, up with me into the clouds!
Singing, singing,
With clouds and sky about thee ringing,
Lift me, guide me till I find
That spot which seems so to thy mind!

I have walked through wildernesses dreary,
And to-day my heart is weary;
Had I now the wings of a Faery,
Up to thee would I fly.
There is madness about thee, and joy divine
In that song of thine;
Lift me, guide me high and high
To thy banqueting-place in the sky.

Joyous as morning,
Thou art laughing and scorning;
Thou hast a nest for thy love and thy rest,
And, though little troubled with sloth,
Drunken Lark! thou would'st be loth
To be such a traveller as I.
Happy, happy Liver,
With a soul as strong as a mountain river
Pouring out praise to the almighty Giver,
Joy and jollity be with us both!

Alas! my journey, rugged and uneven,
Through prickly moors or dusty ways must wind;
But hearing thee, or others of thy kind,
As full of gladness and as free of heaven,
I, with my fate contented, will plod on,
And hope for higher raptures, when life's day is done.

Note
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5

10

15

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Variant 1:

1827

With all the heav'ns

1807

Variant 2:

date

But ...

MS.

Variant 3:

1815

the soul ...

1807

Variant 4:

1832

Up with me, up with me, high and high,

1807

Variant 5: This and the previous stanza were omitted in the edition of 1827, but restored in that of 1832.

Variant 6:

1827

Joy and jollity be with us both!
Hearing thee, or else some other,
As merry a Brother,
I on the earth will go plodding on,
By myself, chearfully, till the day is done.

1807

What though my course be rugged and uneven,
To prickly moors and dusty ways confined,
Yet, hearing thee, or others of thy kind,
As full of gladness and as free of heaven,
I on the earth will go plodding on,
By myself, cheerfully, till the day is done.

1820

Footnote A: So it is printed in the Prose Works of Wordsworth (1876); but the date was 1805.—Ed.
return to footnote mark

Footnote B: In a MS. copy this series is called "Poems composed 'for amusement' during a Tour, chiefly on foot."—Ed.

Note: Compare this poem with Shelley's Skylark, and with Wordsworth's poem, on the same subject, written in the year 1825, and the last five stanzas of his Morning Exercise written in 1827; also with William Watson's First Skylark of Spring, 1895.—Ed.

Contents 1805
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