[Vwoolf] larks

[Jeremy Hawthorn]

I can't be the first to be struck by the fact that the word "lark" appears very near the opening of both Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. But are they the same, etymologically? The TTL lark is unambiguous - up with the lark refers to the bird. But about "What a lark! What a plunge!" (quoted from memory as I'm on hoiliday) I'm less sure. It might also be a reference to the bird, which does rise and plunge. But it seems to me more likely to be related to lark meaning "game", still found in (I think) Lancashire dialect, where "laiking" means playing. This meaning is (again, I think) etymologically unrelated to the bird, and descends from an old Norse root from what I can gather. In modern Norwegian, "å leke" means "to play" as in a child's game. In modern British informal speech, "what a lark" does not suggest any relationship to the feathered creature, at least not to me.

So: is Clarissa comparing herself to the bird, or is she thinking that it's like being a child again and rushing outdoors to play?

Jeremy Hawthorn


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