Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats 
Shelley’s ethereal melody becomes even 
more ecstatic in his address to the 
Skylark : 
Hail to thee, blithe spirit— 
Bird thou never wert— 
each ie sprite or a 
What sweet thoughts are thine. 
To the modern poet the voices of the 
birds seem to express more directly and 
simply than any other kind of music 
the pure sore de vivre. Shelley wrote of 
his Skylark : 
Sound of vernal showers 
On the twinkling grass, 
Rain-awakened flowers,— 
All that ever was, 
Joyous and clear and fresh,—thy music doth surpass. 
Yet, if we could scorn 
Hate and pride and fear, 
If we were things born 
Not to shed a tear, 
I know not how thy joy we ever should come near. 
Keats recognised the same joyous feeling 
in his Nightingale : 
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