The Lark Ascending is a short, single-movement work by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, inspired by the 1881 poem of the same name by the English writer George Meredith. The composition depicts the rising and circling of a skylark. The musical language captures the pastoral reverie of the poem, with its radiant harmonies and nostalgic glimmer. It was originally for violin and piano, completed in 1914, but not performed until 1920. The composer reworked it for solo violin and orchestra after the First World War. This version, in which the work is chiefly known, was first performed in 1921. It is subtitled "A Romance", a term that Vaughan Williams favoured for contemplative slow music. The work has gained considerable popularity in Britain and elsewhere and has been much recorded between 1928 and the present day.

At the head of the score, Vaughan Williams wrote out twelve lines from Meredith's 122-line poem:

He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound,
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake.

For singing till his heaven fills,
'Tis love of earth that he instils,
And ever winging up and up,
Our valley is his golden cup
And he the wine which overflows
to lift us with him as he goes.

Till lost on his aerial rings
In light, and then the fancy sings.

This piano solo arrangement is based on the version for violin and piano, and shorten version used in Yuna Kim’s Free Skating music during 2006-2007.

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