4 O'Clock Birds Singing

Question 2 In the poem, the author describes the scene of birds singing early in the morning and how quickly the sereneness ends. The author uses diction and metaphors to describe the birds’ song. The author begins the first stanza with diction relating to time. The author states that “the birds began at four o’clock, their period for dawn.” The period could either refer to a period in musical arrangement or it could be referring to the fact the time the birds have is limited to dawn. The author hears the birds’ song, which is “music numerous as space but neighboring as noon.” However, the birds may be as far away as noon is from four in the morning, and the author feels as if he or she can hear them even and their music is surrounding the space around her. Furthermore, the second and fifth stanza compares the birds and their songs to water. The author may feel as if the sound if overwhelming the author as “[the author] could not count their force, their voices did expend...to multiply the pond.” The author describes the intensity of the noise and the multiplying number of birds making it describing them as a “force.” It’s as if the birds were a wave, starting small, then becoming larger and louder as more water is added to the entity. In the fifth stanza, “the flood had done...the band was gone.” The author uses these metaphors between birds and water to show how quickly the birds can disappear as “the sun [engrosses] the east.” and as “the day controls the world...the miracle...forgotten, as fulfilled” To conclude, the author uses diction and metaphors to describe the bird’s song. Through the use of these literary devices, the author shows how the birds’ songs are powerful, and how quickly their songs’ end once the sun has fully