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.
Notes
1.The oven bird, a warbler, is also known as the "teacher" bird after its call.
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Change is constant, and the things that we love are the products of change, and yet we would hold it still in moments of happiness, pass it quickly away in times of pain, yet is is us...our song, the time we have to experience everything, all that we will know. Singing is not always a song, sometimes it is an echo, or a premonition or even a prayer; but it is, as all things, caught in the stream of change that ever flows onward...PK
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Sometimes in this life, we find ourselves amid the "norm" and forget that there is more...a greater life, a more beauteous expression. The warbler here serves as a reminder of what is most precious, while other bird, as convention might have it, have forsaken the truth of singing. Whether the perfumes of spring, or the freedom of song (or poetry, for that matter) unaffected by constraints of the times or prescriptions, we should take heed of their import, and be true to ourselves, to beauty, always taking advantage to experience life and it's treasures in the fullest, not forgetting in the "down" times to both appreciate and call to memory what we once knew..perhaps, hoping to experience once again.
The bird never answers "what to make of a diminished thing," but I think Frost has done so by implication. Let us take nothing for granted. For winter's dull prepares the heart for the vibrancy of spring. Anticipation and want breed gratitude, I think. Thus, each season of life has it's import. -
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From guest Kat (contact)
i think the poem is about a poet who refuses to conform to the cliche sonnet form and is a metaphor to the bird, this poet is of course of robert frost -
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the oven bird
From guest kaz (contact)
th poem is called oven bird because the bird builds a nest made from mud, strenghtened with fibres and grass. it gets its name oven bird because the nest is shaped like an old-fashioned baking oven. -
To conclude my thoughts:
lines 1-5 are talking about spring
lines 6-8 are talking about summer
lines 9 & 10 are talking about fall
lines 11-14 are talking about winter. -
I think the poem is talking about the changing seasons. I have to read this poem to my class soon and so I had to go over the meaning. I just don't know why the poem is called "the oven bird"...like why...oven?
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Hello nate,
Personnelly, I go with the theory that Mr Frost felt the traditional sonnet form had past the fashion of the day and that sonnets on all subjects with interest to readers had been written. Or even that it was written in a time of little inspiration, and his thoughts where that he himself, had written all his best pieces and all that remained now were lesser pieces than in his own spring. Now he finds it hard to write one where before ten would have been easy.
But I do agree on both accounts that the Oven Bird is a metaphor.
Andrew -
ive heard many different interpretations about this poem. some say it is an environmentalist poem. some say it is just about the oven bird talking about the changing seasons, questioning their changes. some say the speaker is a poet who refuses to conform to the cliche sonnet form and is a metaphor to the bird. what does it really mean? if anybody has a take on it or a rather interesting interpretation, please write me. thanks.
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