"The Caged Skylark" is a sonnet written by Gerard Manley Hopkins in 1877, though it was not published until 1889, after his death. Hopkins was an English Roman Catholic priest whose writing is often marked by a deep interest in God and nature, and experimentation with poetic style, form, and meter. "The Caged Skylark" is an extended metaphor, in which the condition of an imprisoned skylark is compared to the condition of a soul in a body. While the first half of the sonnet considers the hardships of the soul's captivity in the body, the second half finds comfort in the Christian hope that the body and soul will exist in perfect harmony after death.
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The Full Text of “The Caged Skylark”
1As a dare-gale skylark scanted in a dull cage,
2 Man's mounting spirit in his bone-house, mean house, dwells
3 That bird beyond the remembering his free fells
4This in drudgery, day-labouring-out life's age.
5Though aloft on turf or perch or poor low stage
6 Both sing sometímes the sweetest, sweetest spells,
7 Yet both droop deadly sómetimes in their cells
8Or wring their barriers in bursts of fear or rage.
9Not that the sweet-fowl, song-fowl, needs no rest —
10Why, hear him, hear him babble & drop down to his nest,
11 But his own nest, wild nest, no prison.
12Man's spirit will be flesh-bound, when found at best,
13But uncumberèd: meadow-down is not distressed
14 For a rainbow footing it nor he for his bónes rísen.
The Full Text of “The Caged Skylark”
1As a dare-gale skylark scanted in a dull cage,
2 Man's mounting spirit in his bone-house, mean house, dwells
3 That bird beyond the remembering his free fells
4This in drudgery, day-labouring-out life's age.
5Though aloft on turf or perch or poor low stage
6 Both sing sometímes the sweetest, sweetest spells,
7 Yet both droop deadly sómetimes in their cells
8Or wring their barriers in bursts of fear or rage.
9Not that the sweet-fowl, song-fowl, needs no rest —
10Why, hear him, hear him babble & drop down to his nest,
11 But his own nest, wild nest, no prison.
12Man's spirit will be flesh-bound, when found at best,
13But uncumberèd: meadow-down is not distressed
14 For a rainbow footing it nor he for his bónes rísen.
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“The Caged Skylark” Summary
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“The Caged Skylark” Themes
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Relationship Between the Body and the Soul
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Humanity's Connection to Nature
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Freedom through Art
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Caged Skylark”
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Lines 1-2
As a dare-gale skylark scanted in a dull cage,
Man's mounting spirit in his bone-house, mean house, dwells -
Lines 3-4
That bird beyond the remembering his free fells
This in drudgery, day-labouring-out life's age. -
Lines 5-6
Though aloft on turf or perch or poor low stage
Both sing sometímes the sweetest, sweetest spells, -
Lines 7-8
Yet both droop deadly sómetimes in their cells
Or wring their barriers in bursts of fear or rage. -
Lines 9-11
Not that the sweet-fowl, song-fowl, needs no rest —
Why, hear him, hear him babble & drop down to his nest,
But his own nest, wild nest, no prison. -
Lines 12-13
Man's spirit will be flesh-bound, when found at best,
But uncumberèd -
Lines 13-14
meadow-down is not distressed
For a rainbow footing it nor he for his bónes rísen.
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“The Caged Skylark” Symbols
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Caged Skylark
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Free Skylark
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Stage
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Nest
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“The Caged Skylark” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
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Allusion
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Assonance
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Caesura
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Consonance
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Diacope
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Enjambment
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Epizeuxis
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Extended Metaphor
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Kenning
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Personification
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Polysyndeton
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Simile
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Synecdoche
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“The Caged Skylark” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- dare-gale
- skylark
- scanted
- mounting
- bone-house
- mean
- fells
- drudgery
- day-laboring-out
- spells
- wring
- sweet-fowl
- song-fowl
- flesh-bound
- uncumberèd
- meadow-down
- footing
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Caged Skylark”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“The Caged Skylark” Speaker
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“The Caged Skylark” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Caged Skylark”
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More “The Caged Skylark” Resources
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External Resources
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"Sonnet 19: When I consider how my light is spent" by John Milton — Compare Hopkins' "The Caged Skylark" with Milton's "Sonnet 19."
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Recitation of "The Caged Skylark" — Hear a full the poem read aloud.
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Gerard Manley Hopkins' Biography — Learn more about Hopkins' life and the formation and development that influenced his poetry.
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Audio of a Skylark Singing — Hear the sound and energy of the skylark's song.
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"To a Skylark" by Percy Bysshe Shelley — See the likenesses between Hopkins' "The Caged Skylark" and Shelley's "To a Skylark."
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In-depth Analysis of Meter — A detailed breakdown of the complex meter in "The Caged Skylark."
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins
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