Poetry


Language


The poet makes clever use of contrast to highlight the brilliance and wonder of the hummingbird as it rushes around in a world which is moving forward slowly and with great effort.


All of the words associated with the hummingbird’s movement have to do with speed and action. It races, whizzes, fl ashes, pierces and jabs. In contrast, the world around it lumbers slowly forward, gasping, humming and heaving. In this way, the hummingbird stands out as ahead of its time. The short vowel sounds in words like ‘chipped’ and ‘whizzing’ suit the little bird perfectly and give the impression that it is darting about, never staying in one place for long. The rest of the world moves slowly and this is refl ected in the longer vowel sounds in ‘awful’ and ‘heave’. The sibilance and long vowel sounds in ‘slow, vast, succulent stems’ highlight the stillness in this prehistoric world and contrast perfectly with the speed and brilliance of the hummingbird.


Mood


The mood of the poem is quite playful. There is a sense of wonder and of fun in the descriptions of a little bird that is both a fl ash of brilliance and a terrifying, dangerous monster. Yet there may also be something more serious in the poet’s observation that evolution changes the balance of power and that nothing remains the same forever.


The repetition of the word ‘Probably’, at the start of the twelfth and fourteenth lines of the poem, gives the impression that the poet’s imagination is running away with him. There is a childlike eagerness in his belief that the hummingbird was probably once a ‘jabbing, terrifying monster’. There is nothing probable about this vision of the prehistoric world, but the poet’s desire to give some sort of credibility to his wild imaginings gives the poem a sense of fun and innocence. The fi nal line is humorous as the poet refl ects on our good fortune at not living in a time when these tiny, delicate little birds were terrifying monsters. Yet it also reminds us that we too may be viewed ‘through the wrong end of the long telescope of Time’ some day.


Setting


The poem is set in the dull stillness of prehistoric earth, a time and place in which the hummingbird is the only sign of life and brilliance.


Relevance


Some critics see the hummingbird in this poem as a representation of creativity and imagination in a world that is not yet ready for such things. This idea, that there are always those who are ahead of their time, is as relevant today as it was when Lawrence wrote this poem.


Against the backdrop of the ‘Primeval-dumb’ world, the artist’s or writer’s vision – represented by the hummingbird – is a ‘little bit chipped off in brilliance’ and is ‘ahead of creation’.


Everything around the bright, colourful hummingbird is dull and slow. It ‘raced down the avenues./Before anything had a soul’. It lives in a world that is ‘Primeval-dumb’ and marked by ‘awful stillness’. Even the plants are ‘slow’.


289


Poetry


oetry


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