Once, I knew a fine song,
-- It is true, believe me --
It was all of birds,
And I held them in a basket;
When I opened the wicket,
Heavens! They all flew away.
I cried, "Come back, little thoughts!"
But they only laughed.
They flew on
Until they were as sand
Thrown between me and the sky.
Within the first few lines of this poem, Crane paints a brilliant picture of birds in a basket on a sunny day. As the poem continues though you start to realize that the poem is not about a song, in fact, it is about the birds themselves. This leads me to question why Stephen states he knew a fine song. The poem is written well and is very graphic, but the change of subject leads me to not be as fond of it.
This is about a song, creating a song. The birds are thoughts he has gathered for his song, but they all escape and he is left without a song.
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