Violence

This is a poem about a bird, but this bird isn't flying around, chirruping happily from tree to tree. It's a poor little birdie that's been hurt. While we might think that a poem about a bird wouldn't have much to do with violence, the speaker of this poem in fact presents us with an image of an innocent bird in order to show us all the violence and trauma that it experiences in its cage. And why would he want to do that? Well, because he's making a point about freedom. When we don't have freedom, like this poor little bird trapped in its cage, we're going to feel violated. The speaker gets this idea across to us by depicting the bird as physically violated and in a violent reality.

• Line 8-9: The bird beats "his wing" against the bars of the cage until "its blood is red on the cruel bars." Ouch—the image of blood here gives us a sense of how the bird's struggle for freedom is a struggle that's defined by violence and suffering.
• Line 12-13: The "old, old scars" that are described in this line give us a sense of the bird's suffering. He's been beating his wings so much trying to get free that he's scarred himself. The speaker's description of the scars pulsing "again with a keener sting" also give us a sense of renewed violence. When we aren't free, we suffer again and again.
• Line 16: Here, again, the speaker makes a reference to the violence that the bird suffers: "his wing is bruised and his bosom sore." This bird is really beat up. Can't someone just let it out of its cage already? The recurring images of wounding in the poem give us a sense of just how much this bird (and the speaker) are suffering as a result of not being free.