Thursday 15 March 2007

Skylark - Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!

IF YOU ARE VISITING THIS PAGE FROM THE STATES ON MAY 4TH 2008 PLEASE TELL ME WHY THERE HAVE BEEN SO MANY HITS IN THE LAST TWO DAYS, LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW PLEASE.
Today, once again was bright and sunny, and as I strolled round Bockhill farm the fantastic song of the Skylark continuously filled the air. As one lifted off I tried to get a series of shots, unfortunately the sun was always in the wrong direction, so this group of six was the best I got.
Ralph Vaughan Williams piece "The Lark Ascending" was inspired by a poem by George Meredith (1828-1909). The composer included this portion of Meredith's poem on the flyleaf of the published work:

He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound,
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake.

For singing till his heaven fills,
Tis love of earth that he instils,
And ever winging up and up,
Our valley is his golden cup
And he the wine which overflows
to lift us with him as he goes.

Till lost on his aerial rings In light,
and then the fancy sings.

The whole poem is 122 lines long and can be found here. The better known Ode to a Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley is here.

2 comments:

tut-tut said...

thank you for the links!

Anonymous said...

Hi, just a possible answer to your question about excessive hits. I am just doing my crossword puzzle from Saturday May 3rd. And I venture to guess that everyone was trying to find the name of Shelley's "The Skylark" which starts out, Hail to thee blithe spirit...(the puzzles clue). That is what landed me here.