The song “Birdland” is an obscure punk rock song written and sung by Patti Smith. The song is not typical in its tune as the musician almost sounds as if she is speaking more than singing at some parts. This style of music caused me to listen more closely to the words of the song, and I believe that this effect was intended by Patti Smith to come from this song. “Birdland” is a song about a boy whose father has recently died. He briefly falls asleep and dreams that his father is piloting a spaceship. The boy then sees a flock of birds which he mistakes to be UFOs and thinks his father is up there. He then begins to shout at his dad to take him up and away. The song ends with the boy climbing up onto the back of a raven and going up. During
Chopin mentions birds in a subtle way at many points in the plot and if looked at closely enough they are always linked back to Edna and her journey of her awakening. In the first pages of the novella, Chopin reveals Madame Lebrun's "green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage" (Chopin 1). The caged bird at the beginning of the novella points out Edna's subconscious feeling of being entrapped as a woman in the ideal of a mother-woman in Creole society. The parrot "could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood" (1). The parrot's lack of a way to communicate because of the unknown language depicts Edna's inability to speak her true feelings and thoughts. It is for this reason that nobody understands her and what she is going through. A little further into the story, Madame Reisz plays a ballad on the piano. The name of which "was something else, but [Edna] called it Solitude.' When she heard it there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing on a desolate rock on the seashore His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him" (25). The bird in the distance symbolizes Edna's desire of freedom and the man in the vision shows the longing for the freedom that is so far out of reach. At the end of the story, Chopin shows "a bird with a broken wing beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water" while Edna is swimming in the ocean at the Grand Isle shortly before she drowns (115). The bird stands for the inability to stray from the norms of society and become independent without inevitably falling from being incapable of doing everything by herself. The different birds all have different meanings for Edna but they all show the progression of her awakening.
Right from the first stanza, we can clearly see that the girl emphasizes her passionate feelings towards the boy by explaining how she desires to be close to her love. Moreover, she expresses the theme of love through using a narrative of how she is prepared to trap a bird. Apparently, this symbolizes how she is prepared to trap her lover’s feelings with the desire to live together all through her life. Additionally, the young lady emphasizes on her overall beauty, her beautiful hair, and clothing which is of the finest linen which she uses to attracts her lover’s attention (Hennessy & Patricia, p.
The novel Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is a book that was written in order to provide “Some instructions on writing and life.” Lamott published the book in 1994 in hopes to share the secrets of what it is truly like to be a writer, as both a warning and as encouragement. Bird by Bird shares with the reader the ironic truth of being a struggling writer through personal experience and humorous stories. Lamott uses memories from her past to help illustrate her points and to help the reader get to know who she is, not only as a writer, but as a person. The author focuses on the true struggles and benefits of being a writer while using metaphors and analogies to express her points, she also wraps her life stories around almost every writing tip.
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.
The title to me is almost ironic. In Caged Bird it talks about limited freedom in the sense that a bird that is caged cannot do the one thing it was made for, to fly. Caged Bird is almost a whole reference to how there are many limitations on freedom. I believe each stanza represents a different “time” for the bird. In the first stanza there are many action words used along with the second and third stanzas. In the first stanza it talks about how the bird is free. The author uses action words like, leaps, floats, dips, and dares. The first stanza states, “A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky”(Caged Bird). In context I interpreted this stanza as, a bird jumps onto the wind and is gliding to where the wind may take him. Also that the bird can fly whenever he wants, the sun is orange at dusk and dawn, therefore the bird chooses when to fly. In the second stanza it states, “But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing”(Caged Bird). I think the second stanza is in reference to the time that the bird is in the cage, or a rough
The “Little Bird” by Imogen Heap, represents the human effort to hide ugliness. Humans are attracted to beautiful things, yet they themselves are not. Humans are naturally bitter and are without morals; it is society that puts us into place. So human effort is focused on fixing themselves and their surroundings. The little bird symbolizes a metaphysical being that humanity looks towards for help.
Dunbar finishes off the poem with powerful lines: “But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core, But a plea that upward heaven he flings— I know why the caged bird sings!” The caged bird is depicted as battered, bruised, and beaten from his violent rebellion— praying as his last chance of freedom. The bird’s belief in its virtuous rebellion justifies the revolt, as we see the bird’s constant persistency, even as the mutiny is demoted to
Initially, the poem appears to be about an observer forming a connection with a blackbird that he encounters many times. Then the reader realizes that the poem is by Stevens and something else must be going on- and they are correct. In order to see the entire picture, it is very important to look at the bits and pieces that create it. The meaning of each individual part, the setting, the usage of literary devices such as distinct symbolism, and versatile thematic messages are all very important in creating a clear understanding. The path has been laid out, now it is time to shred this work into pieces!
Patti Smith 's, Just Kids, embarks on her journey towards freedom and breaking away from any of her family tradition that she felt she may have had to follow as a child. It was the fifties, and at that time, the role of women was nothing short of performing female tasks. Smith recounts the moments in her childhood where she would feel resentment towards her mother, as she watched her perform female, motherly tasks, and noted her well-endowed female body (Smith 5). To Patti Smith, it all seemed against her nature. The heavy scent of perfume, the red slashes of lipstick, revolted her. She wanted to be different, to create her own self-image. Ironically enough, it was through her androgynous image, that Patti Smith was able to capture the attention
Australians have been through many struggles. Through each and every struggle that has occurred to us Australians we will always overcome them and come together as one.
In the poem “Sympathy” the author explains why the caged bird sings, this is said many times through the poem. The caged bird attempts to get out of his cage, he doesn’t stop trying to escape. “I know why the caged bird beats his wing Till it’s blood is red on the cruel bars; For he must fly back to his perch and cling When he fain would
The Raven is a poem where love is shown as the cause for a man’s mental demise and road to madness due to his inability to let his lover’s death go. In the beginning of this poem, the Speaker tells the reader that he was not feeling right and that it was a dark and dreary night. This is crucial to the plot of the poem because of the depressing setting it creates for the character. Even in the second stanza the Speaker is still going into great detail on the description of his atmosphere. The Speaker uses words such as: dark, dreary, bleak, weak and weary- to invoke unhappy or depressing imagery in the reader’s mind to put across the overall depressing mood and tone of the poem. The second stanza is not all about the setting, for it is in the
“I got the eye of the tiger” what she means is she is the last time he's picking on her because the eye of a tiger is what the tigers prey sees last before death so she means she's the tiger now and he's her prey she's going to show him never to pick on her again.
Wright, in Trifles, has lived a very isolated and lonely existence experiences a loss of self-control at the death of her bird; she then commits a desperate act in the hopes that it will bring her the sense of equilibrium that was taken from her. Glaspell explains, “MRS. HALE [Her own feeling not interrupted] If there’d been years and years of nothing, then a bird to sing to you, it would be awful—still, after the bird was still.” (Glaspell) The bird holds great significance in the life of Mrs. Wright, serving a dual purpose as a friend and entertainer. Without the bird she has only the chores of a farm and her husband who is depicted as a cold and hard man. The bird was perhaps the one bright spot in the life of Mrs. Wright who’s care for it is exhibited in the careful handling of its body. When Mr. Wright kills the bird the slight sense of equilibrium that she had in her life is gone, and without the bird Mrs. Wright is forced back into a life of solitude. The thought of returning to her monotonous and lonely existence without the color that the bird had contributed to her life might have been too much for her to consider. In Glaspell’s depiction of Mrs. Wright after the crime, “” Can’t I see John” “No,” she says, kind o’ dull like. “Ain’t he home?” says I. “Yes,” says she, “he’s home.” “Then why can’t I see him? “I asked her, out of patience. “’Cause he’s dead,” says she. “Dead?” says I. She just nodded her head, not getting a bit excited, but rockin’ back and forth.
bird as the metaphor of the poem to get the message of the poem across