The poem
How sweet I roam'd from field to field, And tasted all the summer's pride 'Til the prince of love beheld Who in the sunny beams did glide!
He shew'd me lilies for my hair And blushing roses for my brow; He led me through his garden fair, Where all his golden pleasures grow.
With sweet May dews my wings were wet, And Phoebus fir'd my vocal rage He caught me in his silken net, And shut me in his golden cage.
He loves to sit and hear me sing, Then, laughing, sports and plays with me; Then stretches out my golden wing, And mocks my loss of liberty.
This poem makes me think of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, the chinese tale of the nightingale, and Dunbar's poem about the caged bird. This bird was having a wonderful time in its natural setting until the "Prince of Love" captured it. The prince enjoyed the bird's singing, but at the same time, managed to be cruel by sporting with it, stretching out its wings, and mocking its loss of freedom. Lenny, (character…
Read the whole commentThis poem makes me think of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, the chinese tale of the nightingale, and Dunbar's poem about the caged bird. This bird was having a wonderful time in its natural setting until the "Prince of Love" captured it. The prince enjoyed the bird's singing, but at the same time, managed to be cruel by sporting with it, stretching out its wings, and mocking its loss of freedom. Lenny, (character in Of Mice and Men) loves soft things, but because he doesn't realize his strength, kills what he loves. The Prince of Love thinks that the bird is singing for him and for his pleasure, but the bird is really singing out of pain and doing what comes naturally for it.
This is a poem that can apply to those that feel like they are trapped in a gilded cage: Everything is show, but substance is missing. It is a poem with cruelty and loss weaved throughout its images. With its four stanzas, an emotional story is told and Blake manages not to get "preachy". The moral is left to the reader's interpretation.