In 1881, poet George Meredith wrote The Lark Ascending, a poem about the song of the skylark. Decades later in 1920–1921, English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams premiered a piece for orchestra and violin by the same, inspired by Meredith's words. Perhaps more famously known in music than poetry, The Lark Ascending is an iconic part of both poetic and orchestral repertoire, and it has touched the lives of generations over time.
It is perhaps fitting, then, that it should serve as an emblem of hope in ascension. We live in a time of immense turmoil across all dimensions of our daily lives. There is plenty to feed our anxieties and uncertainties, and each day brings new challenges to our livelihood. However, there are many ways in which we can respond to those uncertainties. We can hibernate from them, isolating ourselves in our own nests of safety. Alternatively, we can meet those challenges with grace and fortitude by treating each other with kindness and filling our lives things that are genuinely good — like art. Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending is a reminder that the alternative, though difficult, is more rewarding. As Leonard Bernstein has been quoted, "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before." And so, as the lark, upward we rise.
