Longing for the Oven Bird

Figure 1. Oven Bird.

“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.” 

Courtesy Robert Frost’s “The Oven Bird”

April is National Poetry Month, but it is also the time when the birds begin to chirp and sing to once again welcome back the warm spring air. Here in New Hampshire, we have the oven bird, which is also a familiar poem by Robert Frost.

Birds have a beautiful way of showing up in poetry. Besides “The Oven Bird” by Frost, we love “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” by Wallace Stevens. What do birds in poetry mean to you? What are your favorite bird poems? We would love to hear your answers.

There is still snow on the ground at The Frost Place, and we are longing for warm summer days spent on the front porch of The Frost Place, listening for the song of the oven bird, and looking at the vibrant lilies and lupine around Frost’s mailbox. We hope you will join us this summer. In the meantime, we will be listening to this virtual version of the oven bird’s song.