Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The role of nature in modern literature
Why is it important to talk about nature in literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The role of nature in modern literature
The Bird, The Wind, and The Cage
The bird flew effortlessly through the trees, the wind gently guiding her around branches
and thorns, never letting her fall. The wind had always been the bird's friend and she thought it
would forever stay that way, until the day she saw a beautiful shining star burning through the
shadows of the forest. Fascinated by the radiance she moved towards it. Every inch she traveled
forward, the star's brilliance would strengthen. To the bird, this was a spectacle never seen by
another. She longed to be bathed in the golden light, but the wind had another plan in mind that
was not in the bird's favor. As soon as she reached her sought after destination, her wings grew
heavier and heavier. She flew straight into the star and dropped to the bottom.
Looking around, she noticed that it was not in fact a star but a cage. The wind with his
mighty breath blew the door closed, the bird still inside. She tried to cry out for help, but no more
than a crackly squeal came out of her mouth. Spectacular gold, scarlet, and sunset coral once
danced on her back and gleamed in the midday light, but now all that was left was a murky rust
coating her feathers. The bird had never felt sadness this deep. She no longer had a voice. Her
lovely down was covered in mud, and she believed she would never escape this cage. It was her
new home. Through the bars of the cage, she saw dozen upon dozens of birds drifting through
the breeze being guided by the wind. Their voices each matched in perfect harmony as they sang
one after another. The bird's sorrow shrunk as rage boiled up beneath her skin. Jealousy of the
other free- flying birds seeped from her feathers, coating her down with yet anoth...
... middle of paper ...
...bird could do
was pay respect to the one soul had helped her realize the power of love and the strength within
herself. Again she lifted her and the other bird up into the air and hoisted him through the sky.
She flew over mountains and forest alike until she reached the sea. By this time the sun was
setting, which lit up the rolling waves with the most astonishing hues. The bird halted when she
reached the deepest point in the sea and as gently asshe could she unwrapped her claws and let
go of the white speckled bird. She watched as his body drifted back and forth until he was no
longer visible. He would forever remain under the sweeping waves only as a faint memory, one
moment in a world of infinities. The bird never again returned to the forest or saw another golden
cage. She spent the rest of her days dancing with the wind and singing sweet songs.
The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.
...d genuine excitement, although the reasons were still scientific. The birds’ effects on Dillard, on the other hand, contrasted from how the birds had affected Audubon. Throughout her whole encounter with the starlings, Dillard “didn’t move” at all. She was mesmerized from when the birds first appeared to her up until they had wiped out into the woods. As the birds disappeared into the trees, she “stood with difficulty” with her “spread lungs [roaring]” Ultimately, Dillard was appalled by the magnificence of the flocks in flight.
The first words of the book convey a parrot that spoke “a language which nobody understood”, and Edna’s husband “had the privilege of quitting [the parrot] when [it] ceased to be entertaining” (11). In the same light, Edna speaks of and wishes for a life that nobody apprehends. Her husband also possesses the moral, objectifying liberty to quiet Edna when she did not provide leisure, as one can turn off a song once it grows into a tedious nuisance. A further exemplification comes about when Old Monsieur Farival, a man, “insisted upon having [a] bird. . . consigned to regions of darkness” due to its shrieking outside (42). As a repercussion, the parrot “offered no more interruption to the entertainment” (42). The recurrence of the parrot evolves Edna’s state of stagnance as a consequence of being put to a halt by others despite her endeavor of breaking free. Ultimately, as Edna edges out towards the water to her death, a bird is depicted with “a broken wing” and is “beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water” (159). This recurrence parallels the beaten bird to a suffering Edna. She has “despondency [that] came upon her there in the wakeful night” that never alleviates (159). Dejection is put to action when Edna wanders out into the water, “the shore. . . far behind her” (159). Motif of birds articulates her suicide by its association with
By utilizing vivid details and intense imagery, she allows the readers to feel her emotions and visualize the abstract imagery that she put forth when describing the birds. Throughout her passage, Dillard incorporates very adept literary techniques to create a trance-like feeling, such as when recounting the flight patterns of the birds with, “The flight extended like a fluttering banner, an unfurled oriflamme, in either direction as far as I could see.” As she continues, she immerses the readers with the actions of the birds, in such a manner that makes it seem as if she was a bird herself, flying majestically with the flock. She stated that “Each individual bird bobbed and knitted up and down in the flight at apparent random, for no known reason except that that’s how starlings fly, yet all remained perfectly spaced.” By stating that, “The flocks each tapered at either end from a round middle, like an eye”, Dillard is able to provide additional explicit imagery and details that give the readers emotional insight rather than mere facts of what happened. Furthermore, as she describes the sounds she hears with, “Over my head, I hear a sound of beaten air like a million shook rugs, a muffled whuff. Into the woods they sifted without shifting a twig, right through the crowns of trees, intricate and rushing, like wind”, she provides so much intricate detail in a way that the
We were now at the bus stop. The sun had replenished and the sky full of glee. There was trail next to the bus stop, she started walking through it. The trees intertwined like arches and the shadows created an ominous feeling. As she walked through the forest, her whole body had a calm aura.
A devoted mother, Anne Bradstreet is concerned with her children as she watches them grow up. “Or lest by Lime-twigs they be foil'd, or by some greedy hawks be spoil'd” Anne Bradstreet uses to describe her fear for her children. Not wanting to see her children suffer, Anne Bradstreet turns to God to help her children. Bradstreet imagines her bird’s being stuck on a branch and a hawk eating them, a grim image of all of her sacrifice being lost in a single moment. “No cost nor labour did I spare” describes how much Anne loves her children.
...ve for what is dear to her, nature. The world from the top of the pine tree, “the see with the dawning sun making a golden dazzle over it…two hawks with slow-moving pinions” flying east (Jewett, 1884, 1914, qtd in McQuade, et.al., 1999, p. 1645). Sylvia was speechless from the world’s beauty, she “felt as if she too could go flying away among the clouds…” (Jewett, 1884, 1914, qtd in McQuade, et.al., 1999, p. 1645). She climbed down but her soul still remained at the top of the world and stayed true to herself and to what she loved.
Peters finds the bird cage, it is empty. This bird cage never actually had a bird in it. In paragraph 218, Mrs. Hale finds the canary has croaked: “‘There’s something wrapped up in this piece of silk,’ faltered Mrs. Hale. ‘This isn’t her scissors,’ said Mrs. Peters, in a shrinking voice. Her hand not steady, Mrs. Hale raised the piece of silk. ‘Oh, Mrs. Peters!’ she cried. ‘It’s—’ Mrs. Peters bent closer. ‘It’s the bird,’ she whispered. ‘But, Mrs. Peters!’ cried Mrs. Hale. ´Look at it! Its neck—look at its neck! It’s all—other side to.’”(Glaspell). Sadly, the bird was strangled, and I think that Mr. Wright did it. Mrs. Wright clearly loved her feathered friend. After it was killed, she wrapped it in a square of silk. Back then, silk was very expensive even for a little piece like that. Mrs. Hale explains how Millie loved to sing, and this bird must remind her of when she was happy. Mr. John Wright was not very happy with this bird. If he could stop his wife from singing and being happy, he could surely stop a little bird. So Wright goes into the room and snaps its neck, destroying his wife’s most prized
"Because the truth was simple, not a long-drawn-out record of flowered shifts, tree cages, selfishness, ankle ropes and wells. Simple: she was squatting in the garden and when she saw them coming and recognized schoolteacher's hat, she heard wings. Little hummingbirds stuck their needle beaks right through her headcloth into her hair and beat their wings. And if she thought anything, it was No. Nono. Nonono. Simple. She just flew. Collected every bit of life she had made, all the parts of her that were precious and fine and beautiful, and carried, pushed, dragged them through the veil, out, away, over there where no one could hurt them. Over there. outside this place, where they would be safe. And the hummingbird wings beat on." (163)
about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters...Once she faltered for a
I had heard of birds feigning a broken wing in order to lure intruders away from their nest. After what seemed like eons of waiting, this behavior finally manifested itself in a neglected pasture littered with tansy, bull thistles, and piles of ancient, petrified horse manure. The killdeer had been crying out its shrill warning for sometime when, suddenly, it appeared with its wing askew, looking quite broken. Mesmerized, I watched as the fearless mother valiantly attempted to lead me away from her nearby nest.
“Everything, including herself, seemed unbearable to her. She wished she could fly away like a bird and make herself young again somewhere in the vast purity of space.
she always used to wish for a way to escape her life. She saw memories
She looked out towards the sky, weak rays of sunlight were breaking through the horizon. She knew people were beginning to stir. She also knew that she would have to leave soon. She just wished she didn’t have
“A Bird came down the Walk,” was written in c. 1862 by Emily Dickinson, who was born in 1830 and died in 1886. This easy to understand and timeless poem provides readers with an understanding of the author’s appreciation for nature. Although the poem continues to be read over one hundred years after it was written, there is little sense of the time period within which it was composed. The title and first line, “A Bird came down the Walk,” describes a common familiar observation, but even more so, it demonstrates how its author’s creative ability and artistic use of words are able to transform this everyday event into a picture that results in an awareness of how the beauty in nature can be found in simple observations. In a step like narrative, the poet illustrates the direct relationship between nature and humans. The verse consists of five stanzas that can be broken up into two sections. In the first section, the bird is eating a worm, takes notice of a human in close proximity and essentially becomes frightened. These three stanzas can easily be swapped around because they, for all intents and purposes, describe three events that are able to occur in any order. Dickinson uses these first three stanzas to establish the tone; the tone is established from the poet’s literal description and her interpretive expression of the bird’s actions. The second section describes the narrator feeding the bird some crumbs, the bird’s response and its departure, which Dickinson uses to elaborately illustrate the bird’s immediate escape. The last two stanzas demonstrate the effect of human interaction on nature and more specifically, this little bird, so these stanzas must remain in the specific order they are presented. Whereas most ...