U n p r e m e d i t a t e d A r t : Underlining P. B. Shelley's 'To a Skylark' [Unfinished Draft]

By Maxwell Owen Clark

"...as well might it be imagined that, 

'to speak grammatically,' means, to 

parse every sentence we utter."
---Archbishop Whatley, *Elements of Logic*

ABSTRACT: In this essay I frame Percy Shelley's ode 'To a Skylark' with a mixture of grammar and scansion, or grammetrics. Remarks on this enframing, or scaffolding, are added in to it therefrom.

0.

"To a Skylark" (title, in italics) 

—one locative preposition, to one genitive preposition, to one compound noun.

—4 syllables

—   

 ^   ^     ^     v

To  a  Sky  lark

(short, short, short, long)

—Remark: The first three syllables hereabove are, at once, both accented (accentual meter), and short (quantitative meter). The first two syllables are even exceedingly tiny, little punctures of breath, "to a…", like as if stomping down a vocal dance step, or even a jig echo—then slowing down slightly across the, whilst still accented and short, term "sky-"—and so on to landing smoothly, after the so many air horns of the initial three syllables, into "-lark": as if the gregarious ardor of Shelley's quill (see the first three syllables of his title) just slightly took back some of its leisurely ease, mellowed the onward charge of "to a sky-", sank back into a comfy cloud of lilt, pacing, and softly mannerism. As if a tail of some cloud were shuddered off course by three syllabic blasts, but curled back into itself, re-frosted into place, at the rest (syllable) of the winds ("-lark"). Fast, fast, fast-to-moderate, then slo-mo'd, tranquil, gravitas (cloud condensation)—curling up around the extension of the otherwise burst-out phrase at hand, like the florally ornamental but abstracted tail-ends of an old copper handrail. Zoom, zoom, merge, parked. Fast and slow, a duality—fast to slow, a partial hint of totality, or the "completeness" aeffect. Rush into languor. Being startled, and then calming down. Locative preposition (hereon: loc. prep)—"To"; indefinite article—"a"; compound collective noun "Skylark": this title maps (locative prep "to") a person/personage ("Skylark") by means of a an indefinite article ("implies that the thing referred to is nonspecific", Google dictionary). Let's head towards, or give to someone ("to"), a generalized ("a") songbird ("Skylark"). Feed the birds.To a skylark—it isn't the same as to the skylark, nor to some skylark, neither to all skylark: to a skylark, this indefinite article suggesting that this poem's skylark isn't any one in particular, nor the most representative/favored specimen of a skylark, nor some skylarks out there among others, nor all skylarks (even in n-dimensions), nor any other grammatical cases but the indefinite article—but a skylark: "a" skylark out along the woodland trail, or park-space, or on a fir tree outside the poet's rustic study, is "a" skylark as "a" (/one) individual member of their species-being, and even far wider entanglements of classification (nomenclature), so that, hyperbolically, or eventually, "to a skylark" also warps into synonymous meanings like "the poet to himself" (Shelley, the Shakesperian, often works in hidden references to his own mundane life under the masks of his mythologies)—"to a skylark": or even "this poem is about to explode with honeyed lushness woozy"—Percy's faintly winnowing, ever difficult to excavate, but rather central intrigue, that is, that of the remnants of his (and his others') lilt, or dialect, patois even, or just idiom, as is evidenced by his construal of the audio-visual "equipollent characteristics" (Leibniz) written onto his pages. "Sky-" "-lark": a lark in the sky! A heavenly ascent up to higher realms of kooky silliness. "To a sky-": expansionist, swelling, taking flight, undoing gravity, joy, shock-azure giddiness, drunk with the unfathomable robin's egg hue of a clear day, so thickly happy for being overwhelmed by a roof-blur so pricklingly bouyant and ultramundane.

1.

"Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!

Bird thou never wert,…" 

—opening two lines, irregularly indented [in my book's copy].

—Hail [infinitive? intransitive verb] to [loc. prep] thee [trad. 2nd-person singular pronoun, oblique/objective form] blithe [descriptive adjective] Spirit [objective, abstract noun]. —Bird [subject, collective noun] thou [trad. 2nd-person singular pronoun, nominative form] never [negative time adverb] wert ["a second person singular past indicative and subjunctive of be" (dictionary dot com)]

—

   ^   v    ^        v      ^   ^

Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! (6 syllables)

   ^       v    ^  v     v  

Bird thou never wert,… (5 syllables)

—Remark: The burbling brook of accents: up-down-up-down-up-up/up-down-up-down-down:—two two-syllable feet of "accented, then unaccented" open both of these presently studied lines—this repetition of accentual patterns in the beginning of both lines, thereby also gels their latter-part's divergences—almost as a sort of "cadence rhyme", with variations on its theme. 

—Remark: The difference between the two traditional 2nd-person singular pronouns ("thee"/"thou")—"thee" is oblique/objective, and "thou" is nominative (according to Wikipedia's grammatical authorities). First Percy was oblique ("thee") with his "blithe Spirit", then, in the next line he was nominative ("thou"), see: "Bird thou…". This section goes from oblique to nominative cases on the traditional 2nd-person singular pronoun, then. First, thee are hailed, off-to-one-side, shyly, coy, mannerly—second, thou are, in the nominative, not even really a "Bird" at all:—Percy pointed ("thou") at the bird which itself "never wert" (negated it), if only after peekingly, glancingly calling out to it, hey there! you "blithe Spirit!", again: you "never wert"—never even wert. The "Bird" isn't even a bird, really, then—is it? It never wert a bird at all, yes? He's throwing up ornithology as a screen, or frame, or a model, for someone else (and that's not something else, note)—the poet; it's not the worst guess.