I had done it again, except this time I laughed. It had happened a few times before, but there was just a different feeling surrounding it. Like I was creating some sort of plot against it now. Pulling out the big guns, you might say. Last year I spotted it and I don’t know why it strikes fear into me, but it just does: the bird’s nest. Nestled in a corner under my deck, there it sat. Frayed pieces of straw poking out like arrows announcing I’m here, sucka, and there’s nothing you can do about it. That summer that mother bird roosting on its nest gave me the dirtiest looks a bird can muster and made me uncomfortable in my own backyard. Opening the door to the yard, I would slowly peer around the side to her corner, like a thief, and upon spotting her beady eyes staring back at me, I’d cautiously tiptoe into the yard, always feeling like I was in a stick-up and she was the one with the gun. She was a robin and, as far as I knew, robins weren’t known for swooping. Needless to say, it was a tense summer for gardening. I had to work around her schedule, keeping watch when she had left the nest, carefully working in the garden and keeping my eyes peeled for the guards on watch on the fence. I couldn’t take any chances. She was a force that I didn’t care to reckon with.
The babies came and then flew away, and mom took their lead, leaving behind one rancid, well-used nest. My dear husband, the saint he is, having heard enough of my complaints over the weeks, was more than happy to remove the emptied nest to sooth my frazzled nerves. At that point, I made a vow to keep my patch of grass free of nests.
The spring of 2010 came around and I was prepared. I had anchored a rock-laden pot where the robin’s nest stood the year before. Take...
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...’s SO on! So I fired away at what he had just dropped, turned off the water, went back into my house, and did a short, yet enjoyable, victory dance.
Taking a look at my spoils from the window, I lathered in the moment. Mother Nature had nothing on me; I was in the control, or so I thought, until I spotted that same flea-bitten bird on the beam again. Pecking on my glass window, I tried scaring it away. It looked in my direction and didn’t flinch. So I raised the blind and yelled (yes, yelled), “IT’S WAR NOW!” He flew to the fence and, I’m sure, off to find more material to build with. And then it hit me: I had just yelled something threatening at a bird. Let me rephrase that, I had reached into my arsenal of one-liners learned from bad stand-up comics and hurled it at a six-inch tall bird that was just trying to make a better life for its family. The bird won.
In the narrative poem “Cautionary Tale of Girls and Birds of Prey” the author, Sandy Longhorn, tells the story of a young girl who is afraid of a hawk, and her inconsiderate father who doesn’t take her concerns seriously. The story shows how her father is determined to get rid of her fear of the hawk, because he thinks it is both foolish and childish. The daughter very well knows the capability of the hawk, however her father doesn’t acknowledge it until it is too late. In the poem, Longhorn uses alliteration and rhyme to help explore the theme of how being inconsiderate towards others can in the end hurt you as much as it hurts them. The poem takes place on a little farm where the girl and her father live with all of their livestock.
The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.
As night struck I collapsed in my bed exhausted from the day, I felt like I’ve never done that much labor since we first came to Salem. I woke up early afternoon only to see a letter that my dad wrote stating he was going on a hunting trip. Every wednesday I take care of the chickens along with my sister Tara, our chicken coop is a couple of feet from our house and is home to about 12 chickens that are always rowdy.
The birds have obviously had a run in with the tortoise in the past and there was no way they would trust him. The tortoise basically told the birds that he has changed and he is not like he used to be. The ...
In “First Thanksgiving” Olds opens up to the readers about her excitement when her daughter returns home from college for the Thanksgiving holiday. She describes how she will hug her daughter, and smell her hair, and relish in the feel of her in her arms. It is through these moments that readers are also allowed the joy of having their child in their arms again-savoring their warm skin, the scent of their hair as they hug, the moment between mother and daughter as they reconnect. The imagery is so strong, strong enough in fact that readers can share in that joy, the feel, and the emotion with the writer. Olds continues to create a nostalgic feeling of times long ago, rocking and feeding a baby by moonlight. The bittersweet feeling a mother has knowing that her child has grown and those days are gone. Olds reflects even more by stating “As a child, I caught bees, by the wings, and held them, some seconds, looked into their wild faces, listened to them sing, then tossed them back into the air- I remember the moment the arc of my toss swerved, and they entered the corrected curve of their departure”. It is in those lines readers can see Olds catching bees which represent her children, and while she only held onto them for a little time while they were growing- she loved every minute of their youth, reveling in their songs and their wildness as children. In true motherly fashion she releases
Margaret Laurence 's novel A Bird in the House is a collection of independent and intertwined short stories written from Vanessa MacLeod 's point of view. As an adult looking back on her childhood, the protagonist examines how she, and essentially everyone in her life, experiences a sense of entrapment and a need to escape. Because the author begins and concludes the novel with the Brick House, the major theme of escape is shown to have developed in Vanessa as she matures through childhood and adolescence and becomes an adult.
The rise of Great Salt Lake engulfed the refuge, and as the flooding continued, the population of birds plummeted, Williams’ sanctuary turned into a graveyard filled with only memories of the birds she grew ...
Wright. The bird had been Mrs. Wright’s last resort of happiness; it represents who she used to be. This bird was very precious to Mrs. Wright, that becomes obvious when the author says this,“ Mrs. Peters drew nearer—then turned away. “There’s something wrapped up in this piece of silk,” Silk was not an easy thing to come by. Considering that the women come to believe Mr. Wright strangled Minnie’s bird, they make the inference that he did not treat her properly and she would not have been able to get expensive things like silk often. If Minnie wrapped her bird in silk, then it obviously means a lot to her. The women finally understand what happened to Minnie’s bird when they take a closer look at it, “But, Mrs. Peters!” cried Mrs. Hale. “Look at it! Its neck—look at its neck! It’s all—other side to. ”She held the box away from her. The sheriff’s wife again bent closer. “Somebody wrung its neck,” said she, in a voice that was slow and deep.” The women know that Minnie liked this bird a lot and there was no way she would have killed the bird. They come to realize that it was not her that killed the bird, it was Mr. Wright, and the bird was not the only thing that he would have been rough with. “When I was a girl,” said Mrs. Peters, under her breath “my kitten—there was a boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes—before I could get there—” She covered her face an instant. “If they had not held me back
If you are one those people who is inclined to believe, as I do, that a bird in a house is a harbinger of imminent misfortune or something white on your feet makes you run faster or that there is a world out there full of omens, superstitions, prophecy, sorcery and other curious mysteries, then before you read further, I must warn you… what you are about to find out here is not only unnerving, but also hard to shake off.
Another worldly element is present in this poem. The narrator believes the bird is evil. “Tell me...
Bird usually portrays an image of bad luck that follows afterwards and in this novel, that is. the beginning of all the bad events that occur in the rest of the novel. It all started when Margaret Laurence introduced the life of Vanessa MacLeod. protagonist of the story, also known as the granddaughter of a calm and intelligent woman. I am a woman.
Even when Jim is in this awful war-stricken place, one thing that he can still find comfort in, and which reminds him of his peaceful home is the birds, which are everywhere, still living their lives unaffected by mans war. This shows how nature is unaltered by mans cruel antics against other man, and how life and nature must, and will go on through all circumstances.
Natalia is a young innocent girl who before the Spanish Civil War works as a pastry shop worker. During this time, she meets Quimet and after a short period of time they marry and have two children. While they may struggle, they still maintain a nice life in Barcelona. Quimet has a whimsical idea to raise doves on the roof of their home. Natalia is not so fond of this idea. Quimet started with one injured bird he found and it led to many more. Natalia couldn’t handle the noise they made and their strong smell. Natalia absolutely hates these doves and at one point she gets so upset she goes to the roof and takes the eggs. She would shake the eggs hard enough to kill the doves. Rodoreda writes, “So instead of bothering ...
Satire defined is 'A composition in verse or prose holding up a vice or folly to ridicule or lampooning individuals… The use of ridicule, irony, sarcasm, etc, in speech or writing for the ostensible purpose of exposing and discourage vice or folly'; (Johnston, 5). In other words, satire is the use of humor to expose moral behavior of man. In the Aristophanes' play The Birds, satire is used to mock the common Greek's dream of ruling the gods that they worship. It mocks the power that they seek to become the supreme ruler of the world. To understand Aristophanes use of satire, one must first understand the role satire plays in sending out its message.
The time was 7:30 on a Monday morning. The smell of gasoline lingered in the air long enough for anyone to notice. Sunlight filtered through the brush. The cry of an animal in the distance startled some doves in the clearing, and they took off in marvellous flight. Metal lay strewn about the grass. A body lay on the ground, eyes closed. A large cut was spread on its leg. A bird flew into the clearing and landed on the body. A throaty cry escaped from its beak, as it drowned out the wail of sirens approaching in the distance.