"Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" is a praise to the "Spirit of Beauty" that Shelley seems to use as a muse. He "vowed that [he] would dedicate [his] powers" to the ghost like idea of beauty (13,61). While reading "To a Sky-Lark", it felt as though Shelley was talking about this same spirit but in the form of the bird.
There are many comparisons of the sky-lark to some type of spirit or creature that isn't of the earth. Immediatley, the bird is referred to as a "blithe Spirit" who soars "higher still and higher / From the earth" (1,6-7). This no longer seems like a bird as it is said to be "unbodied" and "a star of Heaven / in the broad day-light / ... unseen" (15,18-20).
The bird is also praised for being so beautiful and singing "music sweet as love" (45). It seems as though Shelley writes about the bird because the spirit of beauty is coming through its music. He is struck by how it sounds and wants to recreate the loveliness with his own writing.
This similar theme shows that Shelley thinks of nature as his muse, or as something he wants to harness in his writing. Like Addie said in her previous post, the last stanza makes it seem as though Shelley is jealous of the sky-lark's ability to cause others to listen to its own beauty. Shelley wants the ability to share the spirit of beauty the way the bird does.
I really like your comparison to the spirit in Hymn. It's also interesting if you like of the potential jealousy that Shelley has as a type of insecurity. Some of his other works such as "To Wordsworth," boast a sense of confidence and competition with other poets (Wordsworth) -- It is interesting how we simultaneously see both Shelley's confidence and insecurity through his work.
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