Read Wordsworth and Shelley's poems 'To a Skylark' and Hughes' poem 'Skylarks'. Discuss the similarities and differences in the poets' presentation of, and attitude to, the birds.

... Read Wordsworth and Shelley's poems 'To a Skylark' and Hughes' poem 'Skylarks'. Discuss the similarities and differences in the poets' presentation of, and attitude to, the birds. There are a number of similarities and differences in Wordsworth's, Shelley's and Hughes' presentation of, and attitude to the birds through form, diction and imagery. The first line in Wordsworth's poem is about an 'Ethereal minstrel!' and a 'pilgrim of the sky!'. This tells of a medieval singer who roams with a purpose. Wordsworth uses these to apostrophise the lark. When these lines are combined with others throughout the poem it becomes apparent that the lark is used as a metaphoric visual aid. This is shown with the apparent dichotomy between earth and sky. The lines, 'Or, while the wings aspire' and 'Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground', suggest that even though the lark aspires to even greater heights literally and

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