Bluebird
Hello everyone, today I’m going to talk about the poem Bluebird by Charles Bukowski. First I would like to start with vocabulary. to inhale is to breathe air, smoke or gas into you lungs. A clerk is someone who sells thing in a store or grocery A pact is an agreement between two people To weep is to cry
Before we start analyzing the poem we need to know what the bluebird stands for; bluebird is a wildly accepted symbol of cheerfulness, happiness the good one in the soul and good health. In other words any positive concept may be symbolized as a bluebird.
In this poem the bluebird is symbolized as true feelings and true thoughts.
Charles bukowski was ← An American poet, novelist and short story writer. ← Born in 1920, …show more content…
died in 1994 when he was 73 years old. ← He died because of leukemia. ← In his poems, he usually talks about the ordinary life of poor Americans, alcohol and relationships with women. ← In 1986 The Time Magazine called the poet a "laureate of American lowlife."
He wrote this poem to his ex wife Barbara Fry whom he got divorced within 2 years.
The poem is written in a free verse; no rhyme no rhythm no rhyme scheme. The first stanza is introducing us to the bluebird. He is saying that “I’m not going to let anybody see you” but he is opening up to the reader. He uses repetition to develop rhythm, repeating the first two lines at the beginning of each stanza: “there’s a bluebird in my heart that/wants to get out.” As I said before the bluebird is a symbol for the good soul. There is enjambment through out the poem. There is alliteration in too tough and say stay. Also there is internal rhyme in say and stay. In the second stanza there is an imagery and uses the bluebird as a simple metaphor for his fears and weaknesses that he never lets anybody see. He is explaining that he has no one else in his life except the whores, the bartenders and the grocery clerks and he doesn’t let any of them to know the bluebird. His best friends are alcohol and cigarette. this stanza is about hiding away your weakness to appear strong to others. He thinks that his true feelings are weakness. You may try to drown it with alcohol, it may be hidden until no one is around, but it never dies. He uses alcohol and cigarette as a mask to cover his true
feelings. In the third stanza he asks the bluebird rhetorical questions. He also has a way of writing his thoughts as if they were actual dialogue: “you want to screw up the works?” And even on such an emotional subject, he still succeeds in throwing in some humor, asking the bluebird, “you want to blow my book sales in Europe ?” In the fourth stanza he uses a handful of examples for personification. Such as; the bluebird being sad. And the bluebird singing. Even though he is hard on the bluebird he doesn’t want the bluebird to die so he doesn’t let him die. There is repetition in weep. He says that its nice enough to make a man weep, but I don’t weep do you? In this sentence I think he actually cries when he is alone because he lets his true feelings free. The poem is basically about no matter how bad things might look around you, you can defeat despair if you have a positive outlook.
Before we start analyzing the poem we need to know what the bluebird stands for; bluebird is a wildly accepted symbol of cheerfulness, happiness the good one in the soul and good health. In other words any positive concept may be symbolized as a bluebird.
In this poem the bluebird is symbolized as true feelings and true thoughts.
Charles bukowski was ← An American poet, novelist and short story writer. ← Born in 1920, …show more content…
died in 1994 when he was 73 years old. ← He died because of leukemia. ← In his poems, he usually talks about the ordinary life of poor Americans, alcohol and relationships with women. ← In 1986 The Time Magazine called the poet a "laureate of American lowlife."
He wrote this poem to his ex wife Barbara Fry whom he got divorced within 2 years.
The poem is written in a free verse; no rhyme no rhythm no rhyme scheme. The first stanza is introducing us to the bluebird. He is saying that “I’m not going to let anybody see you” but he is opening up to the reader. He uses repetition to develop rhythm, repeating the first two lines at the beginning of each stanza: “there’s a bluebird in my heart that/wants to get out.” As I said before the bluebird is a symbol for the good soul. There is enjambment through out the poem. There is alliteration in too tough and say stay. Also there is internal rhyme in say and stay. In the second stanza there is an imagery and uses the bluebird as a simple metaphor for his fears and weaknesses that he never lets anybody see. He is explaining that he has no one else in his life except the whores, the bartenders and the grocery clerks and he doesn’t let any of them to know the bluebird. His best friends are alcohol and cigarette. this stanza is about hiding away your weakness to appear strong to others. He thinks that his true feelings are weakness. You may try to drown it with alcohol, it may be hidden until no one is around, but it never dies. He uses alcohol and cigarette as a mask to cover his true
feelings. In the third stanza he asks the bluebird rhetorical questions. He also has a way of writing his thoughts as if they were actual dialogue: “you want to screw up the works?” And even on such an emotional subject, he still succeeds in throwing in some humor, asking the bluebird, “you want to blow my book sales in Europe ?” In the fourth stanza he uses a handful of examples for personification. Such as; the bluebird being sad. And the bluebird singing. Even though he is hard on the bluebird he doesn’t want the bluebird to die so he doesn’t let him die. There is repetition in weep. He says that its nice enough to make a man weep, but I don’t weep do you? In this sentence I think he actually cries when he is alone because he lets his true feelings free. The poem is basically about no matter how bad things might look around you, you can defeat despair if you have a positive outlook.