Friday, January 27, 2012

The Oven Bird by Robert Frost

Text:
There is a singer everyone has heard,
Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird,
Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.
He says that leaves are old and that for flowers
Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.
He says the early petal-fall is past
When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers
On sunny days a moment overcast;
And comes that other fall we name the fall.
He says the highway dust is over all.
The bird would cease and be as other birds
But that he knows in singing not to sing.
The question that he frames in all but words
Is what to make of a diminished thing.There is a singer everyone has heard,

Initial Reaction:
I believe the poem is describing the idea that nature is being destroyed by humans to expand and further industrialization. The poem depicts trees where the birds sing and where “pear and cherry blooms” fall being cleared away to build highways and cities. The poem laments the destruction of nature and questions what the singing bird “is…to make of a diminished thing,” meaning what is the bird to make of the loss of its home and land for the construction of highways and such.
Paraphrase:
There is a singer that we have all heard,
The woodpecker singing loud in the middle of summer,
Who makes the trees sound with its songs.
He said that the leaves are getting old and that for flowers
Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.
He says that the early fall of the leaves is gone
Where the pears and cherry blossoms fell down in showers
On sunny days there will be an overcast moment;
And then the fall comes that is different from when the leaves actually fell.
He says the dust from the highway covers everything. He
The birds will stop acting like other birds
But he will know not to sing.
The question that he poses without using words
Is what to make of something past.
SWIFTT:
SW: The poem is structured in iambic pentameter format. In addition, the rhyme scheme is aabcbdedeffghg. The poem uses words choice to depict the idea that every peaceful or good thing eventually comes to an end. For example, while summer normally symbolizes hope and life, in the poem the author uses the word “mid-summer” to convey a glass-half-empty ideal. For in the poem, summer did not represent life and hope, but instead, the narrator lamented the fact that summer was half over.
I: The poem contains earthy imagery in addition to dismal imagery that alludes to the ending of all good things. Earthy imagery can be seen throughout the poem as the author writes, “the solid tree trunks sound again” and “early petal-fall.” In addition, the dismal imagery can be seen as the author gloomily stated, “leaves are old” and “what to make of a diminished thing.”
F: The poem is an extended metaphor for the idea that nothing lasts forever, and at some point, even the most peaceful and serene scenes of nature are covered with “the highway dust.” The bird described in the poem symbolized a negative outlook on life, for the bird was heard singing “mid-summer” and was described to be “a mid-wood bird,” showing that instead of enjoy the pleasures of summer, the author lamented the fact that summer was half-way over. Further, throughout the poem, the bird was described to be telling stories about how the “pear and cherry bloom went down in summer” and how there was overcast on sunny days. At the end, the bird finally questioned “what to make of a diminished thing.”
T: The tone of the poem was melancholy and despairing as it lamented the idea that nothing can last forever. For example, the poem described “the early petal-fall” and “sunny days a moment overcast.”
T: The theme of the poem is that nothing in life will last forever. The narrator of the poem continually depicted scenes from the most negative point of view possible. Instead of enjoying the pleasures of summer, the narrator lamented the fact that it was “mid-summer.” At the end of the poem, the narrator even stated that the bird who tells him of the passage of all things will eventually “cease and be as other birds.”
Conclusion:
After analyzing “The Oven Bird,” my concluding thoughts are very different from my initial reaction. The poem was not describing industrialization, but it was simply lamenting the passage of all good things in life. The narrator constantly took on negative points of views on life, as he lamented everything from the fact that it was “mid-summer” to the “highway dust…over all.”

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