story of a starling, which had become trapped, inside the room. Both the father and the daughter watched as the bird struggled to find its way out of the room. The details given by the author, give an image of a beautiful bird that is fighting for its life, to get back to it’s comfort zone outdoors. He uses the lines, “Batter against the brilliance, drop like a glove To the hard floor, or the desk-top”. I see this as an analogy of his daughter battering against the keys, maybe throwing her hands to her head, and slumping over. The struggle of the bird has now become the struggle of the daughter, seeking to find that which gives her fulfillment. The following stanza in the poem is my favorite, “It lifted off the chair-back, Beating a smooth course for the right window And clearing the sill of the world”. The father is remembering the struggle of the bird, and how it’s persistence paid off and allowed it to reach its goal. This is clearly his thoughts and hopes for his daughter’s current struggle. The poem finishes with the father speaking directly to his daughter. He leads the reader to believe that while the bird was struggling to survive, his daughter also is struggling to survive in her own way. The battle to overcome an instance of life and death is no easy toll. He feels the pain of his daughter and wishes her the strength to get through her struggles and achieve her goal.I thoroughly enjoyed reading and analyzing this poem. The author used very strong adjectives to convey his points across to the reader. The style, in which this poem was written, made it very easy to read and comprehend. While it could have been easy to just read through this poem and write about its meaning, there were so many underlying themes, that it caused me to re-read it several times. The more I read the poem, the more I completely understood it’s meaning and enjoyed it. ...
