The flying aspect of the bird’s motion comes rather late in Emily Dickinson’s poem. For more than half of the poem, the bird does not fly. Instead, as the speaker observes, he does a number of other actions while on its feet: eating a worm, drinking water from the dew, hopping, glancing around, hurrying, and moving his head. The speaker interprets these actions to mean that the bird feels threatened, so they cautiously extend a crumb. At that point, the flight descriptions and comparisons begin. The only direct reference to a bird flying is the statement “he unrolled his feathers.” The speaker then states that he “rowed . . . Home,” moving through the air more softly and seamlessly than oars in the ocean. A more direct comparison to other creatures’ flight is to butterflies, referring to the ways they “swim,” actually lighting on the water’s surface without making a splash.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What is the theme of the chapter Lead?
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
The statement "Development policy needs to be about poor people, not just poor countries," carries a lot of baggage. Let's dis...
-
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
De Gouges's Declaration of the Rights of Woman was enormously influential. We can see its influences on early English feminist Mary Woll...
-
As if Hamlet were not obsessed enough with death, his uncovering of the skull of Yorick, the court jester from his youth, really sets him of...
-
James is very unhappy on a number of occasions throughout the story, but he's especially unhappy with his life situation as the story be...
-
One of the plot lines in Pride and Prejudice is Mrs. Bennet’s plan to marry off her daughters, preferably to rich men. Throughout the novel...
-
"Mistaken Identity" is an amusing anecdote recounted by the famous author Mark Twain about an experience he once had while traveli...
No comments:
Post a Comment