Hummingbird
Hummingbird - meaning Summary
A Fleeting Encounter's Lesson
The speaker recounts a brief, vivid sighting of a hummingbird—an intense, miniature beauty that vanishes almost instantly. That image opens into reflection: small wonders persist amid overwhelming dangers like war, death, and disaster. Rather than succumb to worry, the poem frames a quasi-religious duty to respond to life’s fragility. The hummingbird becomes a prompt to accept responsibility and maintain attention to fleeting goodness despite threats beyond control.
Read Complete AnalysesOne day in a lifetime I saw one with wings a pipesmoke blur shaped like half a kiss and its raspberry-stone heart winked fast in a thumbnail of a breast. In that blink it was around a briar and out of sight, but I caught a flash of its brain where flowers swing udders of sweet cider; and we pass as thunderclouds or, dangers like death, earthquake, and war, ignored because it's no use worrying .... By him I mean. Responsibility Against the threat of termination by war or other things is given us as by a deity.
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