These Are the Days When Birds Come Back
poem 130
These Are the Days When Birds Come Back - meaning Summary
Late Return of Spring
The poem reflects on a tentative, late return of spring signaled by a few birds and a deceptive warm sky. Dickinson treats these fragile signs as almost-religious rituals: seeds, leaves, and insects authenticate the season while summer’s imagery becomes a sacrament. The speaker yearns, with childlike sincerity, to partake in this brief, liminal restoration of life and warmth before its truth is fully confirmed by nature’s ordinary witnesses.
Read Complete AnalysesThese are the days when Birds come back A very few a Bird or two To take a backward look. These are the days when skies resume The old old sophistries of June A blue and gold mistake. Oh fraud that cannot cheat the Bee Almost thy plausibility Induces my belief. Till ranks of seeds their witness bear And softly thro’ the altered air Hurries a timid leaf. Oh Sacrament of summer days, Oh Last Communion in the Haze Permit a child to join. Thy sacred emblems to partake They consecrated bread to take And thine immortal wine!
Feel free to be first to leave comment.