Analysis of I Want to be a Bird
Janet Muirhead Hill 1942 (Colorado)
When I come back in my next life
I want to be a bird.
I’ll be free from political strife,
And my ways won’t seem absurd.
I’ll soar and sing and play all day
Riding the currents of air
I’ll see the world in a different way
And will say that life is fair.
I won’t be limited to pleasing others
With no regard for myself.
I won’t be labeled whom I’m not
Nor confined to a narrow shelf.
When I’m a bird I’ll be so free
With a panoramic view.
I will flit from tree to tree.
I’ll wing to somewhere new.
I won’t be stuck in one small place
That feels like a prison cell
I’ll be able to see the world
And I plan to see it well.
Scheme | AB AB CD CD XE XE FG FG XH XH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) |
Metre | 11110111 111101 111101001 0111101 11010111 1001011 1101001001 0111111 11110011010 110111 11110111 10110101 11011111 100101 1111111 11111 11110111 1110101 11101101 0111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 657 |
Words | 150 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 47 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 13 |
About this poem
This poem came to me while on my daily walk as I watched various birds with envy.
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"I Want to be a Bird" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/165899/i-want-to-be-a-bird>.
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