1. Mr. Duncan plans to return to begin Crime and Punishment with you on April 3. Plan on a "Did you read it?" quiz that day. And now, for the last blog poem of the week . . .
2. The following poem is by a famous Portland writer, Ursula Le Guin, and was republished in last Sunday's Oregonian. Consider how Le Guin uses sound, rhythm, imagery, and symbolism to serve her purpose.
The Cactus Wren
In this great silence, to sit still
and listen till I hear the wren
is to draw free from wish and will.
She flits to perch; her slender bill
spouts a thin jet of music, then
in the great silence she falls still.
Wind nods the short-stemmed flowers that fill
the sandy wash. She sings again
her song devoid of wish or will.
The hummingbird's quick drum and thrill
is gone just as I hear it, when
in this great silence all holds still.
The granite sand, the barren hill,
the dry, vast, rigorous terrain
answer no human wish or will.
Again, the small quicksilver trill
that has no messages for men.
In the great silence she sings still
of pure need free from wish or will.
"The Cactus Wren" is from Incredible Good Fortune,
Shambhala, 2006, © 2006 by Ursula K. Le Guin.
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The rhyme system that this poem is going at is a-b-a-a-b-a-a-c-a-a-c-a-a-d-a-a-d-a-a. That's not too complicated I don't think. The effect that Ursula Le Guin uses is the contrast between each line change the the punctuation that she uses in each line. I had a bit of trouble trying to read the poem when the commas were in there and my mind kept on pausing at both the comma and the end of the line. So there was a lot of pauses. This gives the reader the feeling that this poem is really spazzy. It feels as if there is this sense of needing to think deeper at the pauses rather than just skim over them. It gives the poem more of a scene to look at.
The message that Le Guin is getting across literally is that the birds song helps people get away from their problems. No one has to think about their "wish and will," just the melody of the bird song that is playing before them.
Le Guin uses three different types of birds: the wren, the hummingbird, and the quicksilver. "the wrens get their scientific name from the tendency of some species to forage in dark crevices. They are mainly small and inconspicuous, except for their loud and often complex songs." (wikipedia), hummingbirds don't chirp, they just flutter, and I have no idea what a quicksilver bird is. I have a feeling that there is no such thing as a quicksilver bird. Just a figment of the imagination. I think Le Guin went from a bird that plays beautiful music to a mute bird to an imaginary bird for a reason. The birds symbolize freedom to many people, they can fly to any limits and do things the human body cannot do. The songs that the bird sings do not have limitations. What wishes and wills do is that they create limitations that people live by. The birds do not have that.
I think the imagery enhances this because we can see the barren lands of the desert and as we stare out into the land, we see no limitations. The great silence is always there, there is never a silence so silent.
Does anyone think that this poem involves death? The diction ("silence" "will" "granite" "barren") makes me feel that this poem is really morbid. The silence of the grave, but then the bird sings. So the bird maybe also symbolizes the song after death, that there is something more than just silence. That is what I think.
The biggest technical trait of Le Guin's poem is her use of end rhymes of -ill and words that end with "en" sounds. Each line only has eight syllables so one of the eight is an end rhyme. Some of the other syllables in a line also contain words with the end rhyme's sounds, like "till" (2), "thin" (5), "barren" (13), and others. These similar words distract the reader from the other words in the poem (or well, it distracted me).
The abundant amount of words with "s" and "w" sounds, which gives a soft, smooth flow. This smooth flow is fitting because the poem talks about birds and their calls. Nature is typically relaxing and peaceful, birds especially. They flit around making cute noises. The poem allows the reader to imagine the birds flying short distances and singing their songs or beating their wings. "[The wren's] slender bill / spouts a thin jet of music, then / in the great silence she falls still" (lines 4-5). The wren lets out a couple of sounds and then gets quiet again, giving evidence to the visual evidence of the birds making noise. "The hummingbird's quick drum and thrill / is gone just as I hear it..." (lines 10-11). The quick hummingbird flies quickly around, faster than a human can hear, which makes sense because they flap their wings about a hundred times a second.
I don't particularly fancy Oregon writers. This poem doesn't seem to have the majesty of the other poems we've read.
perhaps "majesty" is too strong of a word.
What first stood out to me about Le Guin’s poem is her use of end rhymes. The majority of the lines end in some form of ‘-ill’. Like Lisa said, the amount of ‘s’ and ‘w’ sounds gives the poem a smooth flow. The similarity of the words allows the poem to flow from one line to the next.
I also agree with Thanh, that the birds symbolize freedom. To me, it seems that the birds are not just free, but free from human influence. What I mean by that is the birds will always be pure in their freedom, they will not be corrupted as some humans are by their desires and wills. The wren sings for no reason other than that she can, ‘In the great silence she sings still / of pure need free from wish or will’.
The imagery in “The Cactus Wren” is both visual and auditory. The reader sees the little bird fly down to her perch and begin to sing, while at the same time, the reader senses the silence and then hears the rise and fall of her song. Auditory imagery is also provided by the sudden thrumming of the hummingbirds wings and the silence it leaves behind.
Quicksilver is not a bird, but an adjective describing the trill, or song of the wren. Quicksilver is viscous silver mercury.
After I noticed the rhyme scheme already mentioned, my attention was next drawn to repetition in the poem. There are two repeated phrases, "In this/the great silence" and "Free from wish or will". They are both repeated throughout the poem with interspersed descriptions of nature, especially birds. Both phrases are emphasized by this repetition and are clumped as the most important message in the poem- silence and freedom. The silence is followed always in the poem by freedom. I think this represents the need for peace and reflection. The first part says that sitting in silence is and here a wren sing is "to be free from wish or will", it is in the silence that one escapes from the hectic demands of life and is freeing. Then listening and reflecting is an escape out of ones own mind into the sort of sway of nature. The song discusses these forces of nature that are beyond human control, it is what makes the birds sing "her song devoid of wish or will". A sort of diversion of self to the greater power of nature that "answer(s) to no human wish or will".
The speaker contemplates fatalistic ideas, the bird sings because she was made to and not from her own free will. But also seams to find comfort in these ideas and peace in submission of their own human will.
The last line in the poem, "of pure need free from wish or will" confused me slightly. I could see it meaning that the quicksilver birds silence is a need beyond her own, the same fatalistic ideas expressed throughout the poem. That the bird must meet its own destiny and what it was made to do. I also thought that it could mean the bird has a need to be free from wish or will, like the speaker, who desires to fall into the predetermined path.
Overall the poem embraces the idea of doing what you were created to. Each bird is "free from wish or will" and acting only in their nature, but they are peaceful there. The world is all well when one can submit to the call within them. For elements of nature this means living in peace and harmony, but for men, this means fulfilling ones ultimate destiny. Submitting to the drives within them and reaching the highest level of self actualization.
What stood out to me the most were the sound devices and the auditory imagery. There is quite a lot of auditory imagery, and even though some of it may be paradoxical because there is a great emphasis on silence. Technically silence does not have a sound, however one can still hear the silence with words like, “great silence” and “still”. The other auditory imagery is sound of the wren and its “singing” and “drum and thrill”, and the “thin jet of music”, all allow the reader to hear the scene described.
The phrase “wish or (and) will” is repeated four times throughout the poem, therefore there is an obvious emphasis on them and should be deeply considered. Yet, just looking and the sound devices that Le Guin uses can explain the effects of the phrase, because it contains the “s” sound and the “w” sound. Thus the reader is forced to slow down and take in those words, because those and are said slower than most, and the sound then lingers, and the reader holds onto it longer. Another sound that slows down the reader is the “um” sound in “hummingbird’s” and “drum” which, too, enable the reader to slow down their reading.
And with the rhyme scheme that others have already mentioned, I think that this particular method adds fluidity to the poem as a whole, because the constant repetition of “-ill” is also smooth and slow, thus connecting it to the line below. This somewhat creates a more peaceful and calming feeling.
The first thing I noticed was that the “off” words in the rhyming scheme were all slant rhymes of each other. For example the words “wren” “then” “terrain” “men” are all slant rhymes of each other and they all fall in between the other two lines, which coincidentally (not) also rhyme with each other. These rhymes incorporate repetition as well as the rhyming as the words “will” and “still” are use quite frequently thought the poem. This is also not just limited to the end of the lines, but also it also occurs in the middle of the lines as well (“In this great silence, to sit still/
and listen till I hear the wren” [Lines 1-2].) I think that Le Guin used this rhyming scheme in order to emphasize the auditory sound of a wren. The way that the word “trill” rolls off of the tongue practically makes the reader “trill” in the process. Meaning, the words that Le Guin uses not only rhyme but are, to an extent, onomatopoeic and convey the sound of the actual wren in the poem.
That is my two bits on the rhyme of the poem, any one else have thoughts?
The most noticeable aspect of “The Cactus Wren” is undoubtedly its use of sound, rhyme, and repetition. The entire poem is filled with alliteration of the “s” sounds and “w” sounds. With such soft and soothing consonants, all the words are mellifluous and flow easily together. The entire poem is very euphonious, creating an atmosphere of peace. The alliteration is also mirrored in Le Guin’s use of refrains. She constantly repeats the phrase “In this/the great silence” and “wish or will”. The “s” and “w” sounds help create that atmosphere of silence since such consonants can be softly pronounced. Also, by repeating only those two phrases multiple times, Le Guin establishes a relationship between silence and freedom. Moreover, the emphasis on silence is also created through the use of imagery. A description of the desert landscape (“the granite sand, the barren hill, the dry, vast, and rigorous terrain”) adds to a sense of silence as deserts are devoid of much life and thus silent. One not only has the freedom to choose to act in any particular way, but this freedom can also be utilized in choosing to remain silent and contemplative. One cannot be pulled along by the hectic and mind numbing rhythms of life. Rather, it’s important that one acts in a way of “…pure need free from wish or will”. The birds represent freedom. They behave in a way that is not dictated by conventions or group dynamics, but solely by natural instinct. They may trill a song, or choose to remain still and silent.
Also, Le Guin primarily utilizes end rhymes of the syllable “ill” as seen in the words “still”, “will”, “bill”, “fill”, “thrill”, “hill and “trill”. Besides being pleasing to the year, the extensive use of rhymes creates structure for the poem. I took this as somewhat ironic since the poem is about freedom and the ability and will to do what one needs to do. Yet, this poem is also highly structured.
The imagery in this poem is abundant. I love the phrase "her slender bill / spouts a thin jet of music." I think that that it perfectly describes the scene, connecting how water might spout out to the manner the music is sung- direct.
As already mentioned, there is a significant rhyme scheme in this poem. The repeticion of words ending in "ill" contibutes to the smooth, flowing sound of the poem as well as emphasizing the ends of each line. The words that end in "ill" give the most meaning to the poem. What I mean by that is the poem talks about the "trill" of the wren from her "bill" without a "will," then falling "still."
The repetition of the phrase "wish (and/or) will" suggests significance since it is repeated four times. The song she sings has "no messages for men" and the wren is "free from wish or will." I think that it means that the wren doesn't sing because anyone is making her, but because she wants to.
I don't know how I feel about the symbolism...
In Le Guin’s “The Cactus Wren,” the a-b-aa-b-aa-b-aa-b-aa-c-aa-b-aa rhyme scheme directly points to the most important line as well as the location of the speaker’s feelings, line 14 where Le Guin breaks the aa-b pattern with the introduction of “terrain.” This sharp difference along with the rest of the cacophony in the line, “dry, vast, rigorous terrain,” makes this part stand out. The repeating r sound mixed with the harsh diction caught my eye when I read it. It stood out like a sore thumb, and I’m pretty sure that was what Le Guin intended for the reader to feel.
The poem builds up to that point through the alliteration and consonance of the w, f, and s words/sounds. All of which produce a more euphonic effect. This feeling of euphony starts to change towards cacophony as the poem progresses towards the 14th line. Also, right after the cacophonic climax, the poem slides back in to euphony with lines including “great silence she sings still” and “wish or will.” Both of these passages create a euphonic feeling with the alliteration as well as the consonance of the s and w sounds.
Le Guin uses all of these things to convey the meaning and purpose of “The Cactus Wren.” The serenity of birds singing “free from wish or will” causes the reflect on how peaceful the world can be if people stop and listen but there are “no messages for men.” In fact, the cacophony in line 14 acts like a precursor to the mentioning of humans and mankind. The tone changes when the speaker’s reflection turns towards the idea of civilization, but as soon as the speaker goes back to the song of the “quicksilver,” the tone snaps back to euphony.
I'll try to not talk about imagery, for once.
This poem's form is really similar to the villanelle. Not exactly, since it merely repeats "wish or will" and "still" instead of those entire lines, but... more or less. It gives the same effect, in the end. (It keeps the rhyme scheme intact, which is helpful.)
Notably, most lines don't actually end in full stops. There's tons of enjambment, with every tercet (or couplet, at the end) contained in its own sentence, which really adds to the quick, continuous flow of the poem despite the end rhymes like clockwork.
The combination of the consistent end rhymes and the enjambment really emphasize the quick, repetitive nature of the lines---just like the quick “jet of music” of the wren.
This kind-of form here gives it admirable structure without being too strict with poetic formalism---just some fantastic flow.
Five tercets and one quatrain of two couplets, despite the deviations from the usual villanelle form.
The sound here is nice too.
Lots of "s" (31 of them!), complimented by "sh" (just five of these) makes for a smooth, soothing flow of sound. Imagine sitting back and getting lost in a songbird's call, to complete silence otherwise---kind of like that. Pretty effective, maybe.
It adds to the consistent flow, too, to have a recurring sound like that.
There's also some great use of musical devices, which I really liked: "still" and "till" (1-2), "wish and will" (3 et. al.), "silence she sings still" (18), etc.
I liked the comparison with the hummingbird, too. We get quite a few hummingbirds in our garden-like backyard, so I'm familiar with their buzz and their twitter. (I’ve never heard a cactus wren, myself, so this was my reference point. I expect that the cactus wren sings far more often than does the hummingbird, though; you often only hear the buzz of a hummingbird’s wings.) These birds live in a place of great silence, so the little bursts of sound are significant. Like the vast, barren desert itself, the wren's song is liberating and free---it washes over you as would quicksilver. It seems instinctual, without much of a goal or wish or will. Chirp-chirp… [silence].
... it really bothers me how much time i end up spending on the blog responses
they take as long as other assignments do, though they're probably nowhere near the same point value
oh well---i get lost in it, i guess
i won't miss a couple hours too much
David....a couple hours?
The most obvious devices used by Le Guin are repetition and rhyme. I thought that the reoccuring rhyme, and the repetition of "wish and will" that ends in that rhyme further unifies the poem. The repetition of "still" was something I found to be....ironic? Because the rhyme scheme and repetition give the poem a flow that is anything but still, and still is used in different ways.
I like Than/thanh/tan/ton's point about death. Every bird mentioned is at some point "still". This may be over analyzing the poem, but I agree that there is a connection. The rereading the poem, i noticed that the imagery is not particularly upbeat, as most image of the hummingbird, constantly in motion, a thing of beauty and wonder. Instead we are treated to a bleak picture of the environment that is silent, yet there is singing, silent and still, and the only conclusion I can come to as far as the possibility of this reality is that I see death as where this could be true.
Like Krista, I felt that the poem dealt mainly with destiny, with an individual's sense of worth and purpose. To me, the wren represented those individuals that act not out of any personal inclination or compulsion but solely out of obligation, as it continued to sing not because it particularly wanted to sing but because it was made to sing. That it's song should be as gentle and beautiful as it is made to seem (being a "small quicksilver trill" that arrives in a "thin jet of music") affirmed in my mind the point that I felt the speaker was trying to make: all individuals are best suited to do what they were meant to do rather than what they might want to do - there is beauty in what results from that, just as there is beauty in the wren's song. One ought to embrace one's destiny rather than seek to change it, as, in such an embrace, one gains strength and courage, like the wren in the poem, whose beauteous song prevails despite the dismal setting ("the granite sand, the barren hill/the dry, vast, rigorous terrain"). The sound of the poem further supported this point of the speaker's, as it helped to heighten the contrast between the wren's song (which is more euphonious in description) and the wren's surroundings (which is more cacophonous in description), and as it gave the wren's song an ethereal, almost dreamlike quality (established through the repetition of the 's' sounds) that made it even more beautiful than it was previously.
I'll post more later, but for now I just want to comment on a few things. I thought the repetition of the phrases "free from wish or will" and "the great silence" was intriguing. I also noticed a good deal of sound in the poem, most notably the "thin jet of music," and "quicksilver trill."
I want to take a closer look at the rhyme scheme used and how the sound and repeated phrases tie in with that, but I just don't have the time right now, so it will have to wait for later. Instead, I'll make a superficial comment: to me, this poem had a very open, almost desolate feel to it. The poem speaks of freedom from want; of living without the desires so common in people today. Uh, not too sure that's right, but it's what I got out of my initial, cursory glance through the poem. I'll come back to it tomorrow (I hope).
To me, one of the more distinguishing characteristics of this poem is the euphony present throughout. The w and s sounds clearly dominate, from beginning to end. I agree with Michelle in how these soft sounds emphasize the quiet. Le Guin also uses cacophony to emphasize the differences where there is actual noise. She writes, "The hummingbird's quick drum" and "jet of music". The use of cacophony stands out among all the s and w sounds that dominate the rest of the poem.
One thing I just looked up was what an actual cactus wren is and according to the best source there is (aka Wikipedia), it is apparently a very loud bird compared to the smaller wrens, when temperatures increase it cause a shift in foraging behavior to shady and cooler microclimates, and activity slows during hot afternoon temperatures, and it lives in the southwestern U.S. and into Mexico. This makes the lines "The granite sound, the barren hill / the dry, vast, rigorous terrain," make a lot of sense since they live in the desert. (13-14). Also, since the bird is quite loud, the "jet of music" is an apropos statement.
Getting back to literary analysis, the use of imagery by Le Guin also stands out. The speaker says, "She flits to perch," and then describes how the "wind nods the short-stemmed flowers that fill the sandy wash". Le Guin does a good job of helping the reader picture the bird in a desert setting, with the wind rustling the flowers and the bird singing.
Wow, intense rhyme scheme going on here. I’m not going to lie—when I first logged onto the blog, I wasn’t wearing my classes, and I mistook the heap load of double L’s as exclamation points. Not even joking. I was a bit frightened.
Anyway, that’s enough of me being a dork.
I’m going to avoid talking about the rhyme scheme, because it almost gave me a headache—I’m not a fan of rhyming to begin with, so—and I’m sure plenty of people have covered the auditory aspect of this poem.
The first thing that popped out at me was the repetition of certain phrases. First, the phrase “great silence.” Four times it appears in the poem—not just silence, but great silence, as if that in itself were a tangible thing. As if it were some all-encompassing thing that cannot be argued or escaped. Silence can be penetrated by noise, but a great silence always comes out on top.
The second one was “wish or will,” which is slightly more unclear to me. Maybe AP Psych is getting to me, but it reminded me of the struggle between doing what you want to do (“wish”) and what is proper/acceptable to do (“will”). The repetition of this phrase, in various circumstances—first free from it, then devoid of it, then singing from the pure need from it—draws attention to this phrase, and paired with the great silence, emphasizes the struggle in the silence.
I really like this poem because I grew up in Arizona and this poem really describes the terrain and silence out in the desert.
In "The Cactus Wren", Le Guin repeats "great silence" 4 times through out the poem. In the desert it is silent of domestic sounds like cars. The only things you hear are the birds calling to each other or other animal sounds. It's quiet enough to hear the sound of a hummingbird flying by, like Le Guin describes in the poem.
Le Guin uses a lot of description of the desert terrain. The "sandy wash", "granite sand", and the "barren hill", help you envision the dry, brown desert, with the only thing breaking up the landscape being saguaro and mesquite trees.
Okay, just a heads-up, I may or may not have trouble saying anything that someone hasn't already said. Bear with me.
Just like Anna disecting the rhyme scheme of the poem is not really my thing. I personally feel like it makes poetry too technical, and everyone else has pretty much covered it. I do however appreciate the Author's use of 'ill' and 'en', it made the poem go much smother. I also wanted to point out that the pauses within the created between thoughts through line-breaks or punctuation greatly add to the theme. considering the peaceful attitude of Ms. Le Guin toward the birds, I think the pauses are absolutely intentional, she's allowing us to appreciate her poetry in the same way she appreciates the birds on her window sill.
Also her use of largely soft letters contribute to the overall peace and harmony of the poem. "sh" sounds and "ll" and "s" all contribute to the quite and calm nature of the poem.
The imagery in this poem is also wonderful. I love the silence being compared to " the barren hill, the dry, vast, rigorous terrain". Normally I think a desert would be associated with suffering, or heatstroke, etc. but I think in this case she is trying to convey a freedom, a release from the currents of the world and the peace of being by yoursel.f I aso of course, love the perhaps over-used comparison of a bird's chirping to music. I love that because it brings a different feeling to the bird's song. She is not annoyed at the bird, but rather compares it to something as beautiful and powerful as music.
Okay, well hopefully my thoughts were somewhat thought-provoking.
There is much repetition and alliteration in the poem (one example is "wish and/or will" which is found in lines 3, 9, 15, 19). The repetition of "in this great silence" emphasizes the attention that is being given to the wren; no activity is going on besides the wren 'singing' and the speaker observing. The wren itself may not be necessarily important but the message or action that the wren is exhibiting deems a closer look.
-I am not sure about line 10, where it talks about the hummingbird, if it is referring to the wren? I guess I am a bit confused on whether the poem is talking about a wren or a hummingbird.
Matt: your "Superficial comment" is more meaningful to me because it is not tied down to formulaic, textbook analysis. Your impression of the poem is the least superficial aspect of the poetry experience, in my opinion. I liked it.
I like the rhythm/rhyme scheme. I also appreciate the allusion to B.B. King: "The hummingbird's quick drum and thrill/ is gone just as I hear it, ..." The thrill is gone away from me. In all seriousness, I feel that the limited deviations from the rhyme scheme are well placed. They had the potential to sound canned, as do some other poems whose rhyme wags the diction. There is a certain level of respect that I reserve for unpretentious poets. I feel this deserves that level of acclaim. I like the image of the jet of music, I found it very clever and excellently excellent. Also, the repetition of the phrase "wish and will" is powerful.
Thanks, I'm out.
As I read this poem, the rhyming was very quick to catch my attention. The repeated use of words ending in "ill" utilized in internal rhymes and at the end of each line gave the poem a very smooth, melodious quality. In terms of the meaning, I agree with Hari and Krista. The wren does seem to represent those who act based on what they are obliged to do rather than what they are meant to do and like to do. To be able to listen to listen to the song that is "devoid of wish of will" and separating oneself from such intentions should become a new goal. Instead we should live on "pure need free from wish or will."
"The song devoid of wish or will" makes me think of something to do with the wren being a puppet, a minion of some other being.
The punctuation used was reminiscent of The Raven by Poe, which (at least when I read it) uses consistently dynamic rhythm, and odd breaks in the lines, creating a sort of speed-bump pattern while reading it.
The obvious rhyming is at the end of almost every line, -ill. I'm not sure if anybody else has pointed this out, but the six lines which don't rhyme "ill" each rhyme themselves: wren, then, again, when, terrain, men, with the second-to-last word in that list being a slant-rhyme at most, and a word which is out of place at the least. The six odd lines seem to have more to do with music than the other lines, but I'm going to go ahead and assume that this is mere coincidence.
The symbolism in the poem was that of the two birds, the wren and the hummingbird. Quickly glancing through the comments, I noticed someone saying that the wren may have been something to do with the song after death. While I think that most people tend to jump at anything in a poem to say "look! it's about death!" I think that in this case it may be just that. Rather, the song of life. The "thin jet of music" could represent the thin jet of life that is brought by the people on this planet, and just as people tend to fall silent in death, the bird falls silent after just the quick spout of music. "The hummingbird's quick drum and thrill" = the beating of the heart? It would as well be "gone just as I hear it" if I were to listen for the heartbeat of someone with my time frame being an eternity. The wren later returns in the poem, just as people have families which continue for generations.
The rhyme scheme of the poem consists of a lot of “ills” after the end of the lines. The sound produces a slow and tranquil reaction. A lot of the words in the poem have a long vowel sound inside of them producing a euphonious effect. A lot of imagery is provided. One can almost hear the wren singing, “Wind nods the short-stemmed flowers that fill / the sandy wash. She sings again / her song devoid of wish or will”. The phrases wish or will is repeated many times to signify the importance. A bird usually symbolizes freedom and peace, hence the reason why a bird is so free is because it has no wish or will. It is also interesting to note that there are various birds mentioned. At first reading it was hard to know whether the birds were different from one another, but the descriptions are quite different from one another, “The hummingbird's quick drum and thrill / is gone just as I hear it, when / in this great silence all holds still”. Like Fiona said, there is a paradox like relationship between the sound of the birds and the silence.
First thing to catch my attention was the ryhme of the poem. The ill sound is used abundantly in the poen. Coupled with this sound I also noticed repetition of certain phrases and words such as "free from wish and will". The repetition and ryhme scheme are very interesting in the poem.
What really stands out is the imagery found. "The granite sand, the barren hill, the dry, cast, rigorous hill." Such a vivid and crips image really imprints the scene into the reader's mind. I getting a feel of empty devoid desert space. Phrases like "great silence" and "hummingbird's quick drum and thrill", provide a very detailed description of the setting.
The Cactus Wren is full of sound, rhythm, imagery, and symbolism. The first line contains consonance with the repetition of the 's' sound. I guess it's pretty obvious that each word at the end of almost all of the lines ends in 'ill' making the rhyme scheme pretty interesting. It's full of more consonance and assonance as well.
There's much auditory imagery, from the first couples of lines and then also describing the sound of a humming bird. It's pretty difficult to describe what a hummingbird sounds like I think, but the author does a good job at capturing its sound.
As for symbolism, it's apparent that the birds are free or symbolize something that's free from the world. Or theyre free from humans as it says in this line, "answer no human wish or will".
Thanks for the support Mr. Fine, I appreciate it. I guess I was pretty spot-on with my first impressions. Though I said it's about freedom from want and as we discussed in class, it's more of an abandonment of want. Hmm...I'm tempted to just call that splitting hairs. But of course, I should be making some more observations on the poem. Unfortunately, I'm very sleepy, and I'm thinking that this post will hardly be any better than my first. Oh well. I said I would post again today and I will. Here is goes.
I'll talk a little about why I feel the way I do about the poem (it sounding desolate and open) and how that contributes to the overall message. First is the repetition of "the great silence." Silence is almost like a character, filling the land; dampening any attempt at sound. You know how when you're out someplace really wide open, everything sounds thinner? That's how I imaging the music of the Wren. Beautiful, but at the same time lacking the fullness of a song sung from the desire to sing. Rather, it is a shallow song, born of need.
Heh, okay, well, I just spent the last 15 minutes daydreaming, and I think that's a sign I should get to bed and do some real dreaming.
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