Looking for a Sunset Bird in Winter
The west was getting out of gold, The breath of air had died of cold, When shoeing home across the white, I thought I saw a bird alight. In summer when I passed the place I had to stop and lift my face; A bird with an angelic gift Was singing in it sweet and swift. No bird was singing in it now. A single leaf was on a bough, And that was all there was to see In going twice around the tree. From my advantage on a hill I judged that such a crystal chill Was only adding frost to snow As gilt to gold that wouldn’t show. A brush had left a crooked stroke Of what was either cloud or smoke From north to south across the blue; A piercing little star was through.
Looking for a Sunset Bird in Winter - meaning Summary
Expectation Meets Winter Absence
The poem records a brief, winter evening encounter that begins with the speaker mistaking a small, bright movement for a bird. Memory of a summer when the same tree hosted a singing bird contrasts sharply with the present scene: barren branches, a single leaf, and icy stillness. The speaker imagines how cold embellishes the landscape yet also erases familiar vitality. The final image—thin cloud or smoke and a small star—emphasizes the poem’s quiet sense of loss and the fragile persistence of perception amid seasonal absence.
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