Robert Frost's "The Oven Bird"

Text:

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.

Initial Reaction:
Initially I recognize that "The Oven Bird" is about the change of seasons. The bird seems disappointed that summer is almost over and that fall follows, and then winter. He wonders where the time has gone and how much time remains to enjoy.

Paraphrasing:
Everyone has heard this singer,

A loud, summer bird

Who makes his sound echo within the trees.

He says that it is becoming fall and the flowers

Are becoming fewer as the seasons progress.

He says the leaves have begun to fall

The pear and cherry trees are done blossoming

The days become overcast;

And fall is coming

He says dust covers everything.

The birds would migrate away

But he wonders.

The query he has in his mind

Is what to think of the diminished thing.


SWIFTT:
Syntax/Word Choice:

"The Oven Bird" is a sonnet with irregular form, with a recognizable yet nonconventional rhyme scheme. It is written in iambic pentameter. Frost uses diction to contrast the seasons. He describes the spring and summer seasons with positive terms and imagery, by including singing birds, flowers, and colorful, blooming trees. On the other hand, he associates fall with old leaves, overcast days, and "highway dust" (10). Frost uses the phrase "He says" to begin several lines of the poem. This allows him to indirectly convey the bird's point of view instead of his own.

Imagery:

"The Oven Bird" evokes images within the mind of the reader. The audience can imagine a vocal bird, sitting atop a branch in the woods in a mid-summer setting. The bird notices the passing of the seasons: the pear and cherry trees have already bloomed, trees have begun to lose their leaves, and the days have received less and less sunlight.

Figurative Language:

The poem contains a simile in line 5: "Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten." He is using this analogy to note the contrast between the two seasons. Frost also uses figurative language through means of a contradiction in line 12 that the bird "knows in singing not to sing."

Tone:

As Frost (through the ovenbird's point of view) realizes the passing of time, he reflects upon his life with contemplation and despair over the "diminished thing(s)" of his past.

Theme:
The theme of the poem is to reflect on life. Life is short, and quickly passes. But instead of looking back on the past with despair, we should look to the future and make the best of the time we have left.

Conclusion:

In concurrence with my initial reaction to "The Oven Bird," the poem is a discussion of the progression of seasons, or, figuratively, the progression of life in its various stages. Youth is comparable to spring, whereas fall signals the approach of the final stages of life. At first I thought the poem looked conveyed a sense of remorse for "diminished thing(s)," but I now recognize that Frost is also trying to convince the reader to not fret about the past but to cherish the present and anticipate future years as well.