What is the meaning of this poem?

Robert Frost - Looking For a Sunset Bird in Winter





The west was getting out of gold,


The breath of air had died of cold,


When shoeing home across the white,


I thought I saw a bird alight.





In summer when I passed the place


I had to stop and lift my face;


A bird with an angelic gift


Was singing in it sweet and swift.





No bird was singing in it now.


A single leaf was on a bough,


And that was all there was to see


In going twice around the tree.





From my advantage on a hill


I judged that such a crystal chill


Was only adding frost to snow


As gilt to gold that wouldn't show.





A brush had left a crooked stroke


Of what was either cloud or smoke


From north to south across the blue;


A piercing little star was through.

What is the meaning of this poem?
First: I struggle with the question which implies there is but one right meaning to the poem. If that is true then the only meaning can be what the author had in his head when he wrote it. And we can't climb in to find that out. So we must ask what is the meaning we perceive?


Second, having allowed that there are multiple meaning we must choose a focus and search for meaning within that focus. For example, the title directs us to a search, a bird and winter. throughout the poem we find mention of a bird: alights, summer sings, and the absence of bird song now. In summer the bird sang in the warmth with angelic gift--now it is silent. Perhaps we find meaning in the changes in the bird song and the changes in life. Perhaps in the changes in love. Choose a focus and follow the analogy through the poem.





See if you can find meaning in the focus of how love changes in a relationship...at one time sweet and angelic, but now silent amidst a chill that only seems to be compounded. A cruel reality: a crooked stroke. Yet there is a little star shining. Hope?





So you decide, choose a focus and find the words that make sense with your understanding of life, love, pain, sorrow, loss, joy, whatever and identify these and expound on what they mean to you. That's how to find meaning in a poem.
Reply:An old person is looking back on their life.



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