On the Symbolic Meaning of “The Death of the Bird”

Abstract： This thesis aims to reveal the symbolic meaning of "The Death of the Bird" through thorough textual analysis， so as to help readers to have a deep understanding of this poem.

Key words： death； loneliness； connotation

摘要：本文旨在通过对文本的深入分析揭示出诗歌《飞鸟之死》所蕴含的象征意义，以帮助读者深刻地了解诗歌的主题。

关键词：死亡 孤独 内涵

A. D. Hope （1907-2000） was a great Australia poet and essayist known for his satirical slant. His poem “The Death of the Bird” has been considered as “one of the greatest lyric poems in English of the 20th century.”

After seeing a stray bird in his journey， Hope wrote this poem. Through a thorough reading， we can see that “death” is the central image， reflected from the numerous sensual metaphors. For one thing， A.D. Hope uses “the last migration” of the bird to stand for “death”. For another， he also uses personification of the “wind” to indicate that the bird is weak from age， and it is no longer able to fly properly. In such a large world， she is nothing but a speck on a map， make no difference.

Although the bird is only a bird， Hope endows it with special connotations. By describing the bird’s tragic fate， on the one hand， A.D. Hope illustrate the dialectical relationship between life and death， stay and exile， individual and society. On the other he also indicates the loneliness of human beings living in the boundless universe. “The bird” symbolizes the modern people who is lack of believes and barren spiritually. Its miserable experience of endless seeking with no gain reflects that they can not escape from such strong sense of loneliness. The whole trip of “the bird” symbolizes the course of human being from birth to death. The bird's fate almost as if it were a human one. In the end of the poem， nature uses its “immense and complex map” to mock the bird’s “small wisdom” and receive “the tiny burden of her death”. Those lines manage to tell us that human is merely “a vanishing speck” in the grand universe.

To some extent， the whole Australian society， at least of a certain kind， is inundated with a sense of estrangement right up to and through the 20thcentury. Some people live in this country as exiles. Although they love this country， but they also love the “mother country” and it often draws them back. This can be found in the second and third verses---- “Going away she is also coming home” and “Aware of ghosts that haunt the heart’s possession.” The first line would apply directly to that feeling of being estranged from the mother country， the ghosts of the second line being the ancestors， the family history that grew in another country and culture – the “exiled love”. While writing about a bird and its entirely natural migrations， Hope would have been aware of the underlying association with people.

In this poem， the stray bird， driven by “love”， manages to go back “home”， but finally comes to “death”. There is no light for her， and in the grand scheme of history， vastness of time， she is nothing but a “speck” on a map. It tells us that humans are small when compared to the grand universe； death is an end to dividedness.

References：

[1] A.D. Hope. The Death of the Bird. 1984.

[2] 陈正发. 霍普和他的诗歌创作[J]. 外国文学. 2005（5）.

[3] 石发林. A.D. 霍普两首名诗解读[J]. 外国文学. 2007.