As a dare-gale skylark scanted in a dull cage
Man’s mounting spirit in his bone-house, mean house, dwells –
That bird beyond the remembering his free fells,
This in drudgery, day-labouring-out life’s age….
Not that the sweet-fowl, song-fowl, needs no rest –
Why, hear him, hear him babble and drop down to his nest,
But his own nest, wild nest, no prison.
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89), The Caged Skylark, 1877.
In the reign of Victoria, one reporter estimated that among larks 60,000 were captured every year. He believed, 'the lark adapts himself to the poor confines of his prison - poor indeed for a bird who soars higher and longer than any of his class - more rapidly than other wild birds.' Since 1933 of course, it has been illegal to catch any wild bird for sale. But Manley Hopkins suggests from his own experience that the human spirit can courageously overcome unwelcome limitations and frustrations. And the psalmist says to God, 'you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.' (Psalm 63:7)
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