Poem Analysis - Bird Language

Introduction: A Human Encounter with the Other

W.H. Auden's "Bird-language" presents a concise reflection on humanity's attempt to decipher the natural world. The poem's tone begins with earnest curiosity but quickly shifts towards a recognition of underlying fear and, ultimately, an overwhelming sense of joyful incomprehension. The poem is a short study in the limits of human understanding when confronted with the alien communication of birds, leading to an introspective consideration of human emotion reflected onto nature.

The Inability to Decipher: Limits of Human Understanding

One of the poem’s primary themes is the limitations of human understanding. The speaker, in "Trying to understand the words / Uttered on all sides by birds," immediately establishes a quest for comprehension. However, the poem quickly reveals the futility of this endeavor. The speaker can only initially recognize "noises that betoken fear," suggesting a projection of human anxieties onto the natural world. The speaker's inability to move beyond this basic interpretation highlights the inherent difficulty in bridging the gap between human and non-human experience. The poem highlights a universal human tendency to anthropomorphize the natural world, often filtering perceptions through a lens of pre-existing emotions and biases.

Projecting Emotions: Fear, Rage, and Joy

The poem explores the theme of projecting human emotions onto the natural world. The speaker attempts to categorize bird sounds as representing a spectrum of human feelings: "rage, bravado, lust." This projection underscores the human tendency to interpret the unfamiliar in terms of the familiar. Yet, the poem quickly undermines this approach. While acknowledging the possibility of negative emotions in bird communication, the speaker is ultimately overwhelmed by the experience of joy: "All other notes that birds employ / Sound like synonyms for joy." This "joy," however, remains undefined and potentially unknowable, highlighting the gap between human emotional experience and the complex communications of birds.

Symbolism of Birds and Language

The poem utilizes birds and their language as symbols for the broader theme of communication and understanding across species. Birds, often associated with freedom and naturalness, represent a form of communication that is both alluring and ultimately inaccessible to the human speaker. The "words / Uttered on all sides by birds" symbolize a world of meaning that exists outside the realm of human language and comprehension. The imagery of "noises" transforming into "synonyms for joy" creates a vivid, almost overwhelming sense of the vibrancy and complexity of the natural world, a complexity that resists easy categorization or translation.

Conclusion: Embracing the Unknown

In conclusion, "Bird-language" is a contemplative poem that explores the challenges of human understanding when confronted with the natural world. While the poem begins with a desire to decipher the language of birds, it ultimately acknowledges the limits of human perception and the inherent difficulty in bridging the gap between species. The poem highlights our tendency to project our own emotions onto other beings while hinting at the possibility of an experience of "joy" that exists beyond our immediate comprehension. The lasting impression is one of humility before the complexity and mystery of nature.