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.
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.
REACTION: As a first reaction to this text, I assume that Frost is describing a type of bird in the forest. By previous knowledge about Frost, I know that he has a fascination for nature. Past the description of the bird and nature, however, I do not see much else important in this poem.
PARAPHRASE: There is a loud singer that everyone has heard. A bird that appears mid-summer and you can find in the middle of the woods. A bird that brings sound to solid trees and casts off the leaves while flowers are sparse. He comes when leaves and flowers have fallen. He will arrive any time fall weather is present. He shows the true end to summer. He not like the others, who stop when summer is done. He carries on his unmusical song. He knows to come when summer is done, but fall is just beginning.
SWIFTT:
-S/W: Frost generally uses very specific meter and rhyme within his poems, but there appears to be none in this particular poem. The sentence structure in this poem is very similar to regular speech, yet the word choice is not. Frost actually uses kennings, which are not as common in current literature. Two of the most obvious are “petal-fall” and “mid-wood”.
-I: Frost uses imagery in his style more than other literary device. He can create images by using different wordings like “petal-fall” instead of fall which creates an image of actual leaves and petals falling of the trees. He also uses the sense of sound when describing the song that this bird would make against the solid tree trunks.
-F: The only simile present in this poem is when Frost compares fall to spring as the number of flowers. This compares the life present in both of the seasons and creates one of the main points that not much chooses to live and thrive during fall, but this bird chooses any fall like weather.
-T: The tone of this poem is very peaceful. The subject matter is nature which on its own gives a calming effect in this context. Different key words, and even the kennings, add to the peaceful tone of this poem. The most contribution to this tone, however, is the absence of strong tone words. This mostly keeps the calm peaceful tone.
-T: The theme of this poem is the Carpe Diem. The oven bird lives in the moment and makes the best of the fall weather. Fall may be the beginning of death for most animals, but the oven bird doesn’t care. He lives for the moment and will make the best of every moment.
CONCLUSION
When analyzing this poem, I was not wrong in making the assumption that this poem was simply about a bird. There does not seem to be any deeper meaning past Carpe Diem. I can draw a conclusion that the Oven Bird is a type of woodpecker due to clues within the poem
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