A voice, a mystery.
Shelley’s ethereal melody becomes even more ecstatic in his address to the Skylark:
Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats
Hail to thee, blithe spirit—
Bird thou never wert—
* * * * * * *
Teach us, sprite or bird,
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 joie de vivre. Shelley wrote of his Skylark:
Sound of vernal showers