Meditations of a Parrot
Oh the rocks and the thimble The oasis and the bed Oh the jacket and the roses. All sweetly stood up the sea to me Like blue cornflakes in a white bowl. The girl said, “Watch this.” I come from Spain, I said. I was purchased at a fair. She said, “None of us know. “There was a house once Of dazzling canopies And halls like a keyboard. “These the waves tore in pieces.” (His old wound— And all day: Robin Hood! Robin Hood!)
Meditations of a Parrot - meaning Summary
Fragmented Memory and Voice
The poem presents a parrot's scattered utterances as a sequence of vivid, incongruous images and interrupted speech. Objects and scenes - rocks, sea, a girl's command, a claimed origin in Spain, a purchased life, and a ruined house - appear in quick succession, linked more by mood than logic. These fragments suggest displacement, the mixing of memory and repetition, and a voice that repeats human stories without fully owning them.
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