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Birds of Paradise
Christina Rossetti
About Christina Rossetti
Christina Rossetti (1830 - 1894) was an English poet known for romantic, devotional, and children's poems. She is famous for the poem 'Remember', 'In an Artist's Studio' and the words of the Christmas carol 'In the Bleak Midwinter'. She belonged to the Pre-Raphaelite poets. They made a very conscious effort to present the natural world in bright warm and dazzling colours.
Golden-winged, silver-winged,
Winged with flashing flame,
Such a flight of birds I saw,
Birds without a name:
Singing songs in their own tongue
Song of songs*- they came.
One to another calling,
Each answering each,
One to another calling
In their proper speech:
High above my head they wheeled,
Far out of reach.
On wings of flame they went and came
With a cadenced clang,
Their silver wings tinkled,
Their golden wings rang,
The wind it whistled through their wings
Where in Heaven they sang.
They flashed and they darted
Awhile before mine eyes,
Mounting, mounting, mounting still
In haste to scale the skies-
Birds without a nest on earth,
Birds of Paradise.
Where the moon riseth not,
Nor sun seeks the west,
There to sing their glory
Which they sing at rest,
There to sing their love-song
When they sing their best-
Not in any garden
That mortal foot hath trod,
Not in any flowering tree
That springs from earthly sod,
But in the garden where they dwell,
The Paradise of God.
Available Answers
- 1.
Show how the poet expresses a sesnse of awe and wonder at seeing the magnificent birds in stanza 1 of the poem.
- 2.
What ideas of the movement of these birds is conveyed to us by the poet?
- 3.
Show how the poet combines images of colour and sound with brilliant effect in stanza 3 of the poem.
- 4.
Why does the poet repeat the word 'mounting' and why are the birds in a haste?
- 5.
Why does the poet feel that these birds are without a nest on earth?
- 6.
Which word is repetitive in stanza 4 of the poem? What kind of songs would you expect such birds to sing?
11 more answer(s) available.
Comments
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01 Jul 2023Atirek B.I have paid for this chapter, inspite of that I am not able to get the answer
18 May 2025Shefali T.Fraud
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