- How do the first 35 lines present the ideas of exuberance, abundance, and overflow? Find specific images and sensory details (language).
- What is the purpose of the four similes in lines 36-55? What do they reveal or emphasize about the bird?
- Beginning at line 61, the speaker asks the bird to teach "us." What does the speaker want to learn from the bird? By the poem's ending, has the speaker learned what he desires from the bird?
For additional information about the wind, see NA, vol D, p 394 as well as footnote 2: from Wordsworth's Prelude: "A corresponding mild creative breeze."
For a description of an Eolian harp, lute, or lyre, see NA, vol D, p 471 as well as footnote 1: from Colridge's poem "The Eolian Harp."
Add your own thoughts/ideas about the poem. Consider info from the introduction to the Romantic Period and Shelley's bio