The best way to approach poetry in order to understand the
meaning is to attempt to determine the answers to a few preliminary
questions:
- Who is the
speaker? Is it a man or a woman? How old? What are
his/her thoughts, etc? How do you know? Remember, the author is not necessarily the
"voice" of the poem. - What is the
scene? Where does the poem take place? Unlike
setting in prose, the scene of a poem can be internal or
external. Also, it can be something very specific, or
unspecified. - What is the
subject? What does the poem seem to be mainly about? Is
there an object or is the poem more about an emotion? This might be affected by whether
the scene is internal or external.
In order to
answer these questions, you must look at a few things going on in the poem. Namely,
images and figurative
language. I find that the easiest thing to do is make a list of the
common images, and then as many figures of speech as possible. Determining the meaning
of figures of speech is easier when you have a list of other common
images.
To help you get started, consider the following
prominent images from this poem:
bird, branches, land at twilight, swamp,
darkness
Now let's look at
some of the figurative language (metaphors, similes,
personification):
a soft grey glove with a heart (the
bird)
swamp of black mist...first planet...swordtip (the
land)
Birds have made a simple
bargain
the only song I know I see with my
eyes
Based on these images
and figures of speech, you can probably guess that the scene is external, however, the
speaker is also speaking to someone (the "you" he's not speaking of) which indicates
that this external scene is used to make a point.
It sounds
to me like he's gone to the end of the world (figuratively) to avoid thinking about a
loss, either a death or a break up. As a result, he is lonely. The
loneliness/solitude/quiet has given him the opportunity to notice natural things in
detail, which of course only bring back thoughts of the "you" he's trying to
forget.
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