Entering the Kingdom
Entering the Kingdom - meaning Summary
Attention Meets Animal Distrust
The poem considers a human desire to enter nature humbly and attentively, set against the animals' wary recognition of human power. The speaker dreams of becoming only an observing presence beside a river, but the crows refuse that fantasy. Their alarm reminds her that she remains a potentially dangerous outsider, not a harmless creature of the natural world. The poem asks whether attention can overcome that boundary.
Read Complete AnalysesThe crows see me. They stretch their glossy necks In the tallest branches Of green trees. I am Possibly dangerous, I am Entering the kingdom. The dream of my life Is to lie down by a slow river And stare at the light in the trees– To learn something by being nothing A little while but the rich The lens of attention. But the crows puff their feathers and cry Between me and the sun, And I should go now. They know me for what I am. No dreamer, No eater of leaves.
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