The sense of excitement the man receives from witnessing the flight of the birds is shown in the first stanza, “Look! They’re back! Look! And they’re gone” Exclamation marks are added to further add to his excitement. The birds speed is also shown in this line as first they appear, then “They’re gone” They come and go swiftly without giving anyone a chance to see them. They “Materialize at the tip of a long scream of needle”, this suggests the accuracy with which the birds are travelling.
The main message that the poet is trying to get across, is that the world goes in cycles. After the annual arrival of the swifts, he is reminded that the world is continuing and going in a constant cycle. We know that this poem starts near the beginning of summer “…our summer’s, still all to come – “
When the swifts come, the poet says “the globes still working…” The poet might be an old man and thought that summer might not come again. Visual imagery is often used and the power and effect that it has is mostly due to the strong metaphors and similes. Like when the bird was “screaming as if speed-burned”. This suggests that the speed of the birds was so great that it was too much to handle for it.
Overall the tone is sudden and of excitement. This is due to the odd structure, the sudden breaks at times in the poem and due to the continuation of lines in the poem which suggests the birds are moving quickly. There are also many short lines which increase the pace of the poem. When we read the poem, all of these effects add up to create this fast paced poem.
“Every year a first- fling”, “Misfit flopped”. Every year there is one young bird unable to fly, it consistently tries and tries again every time to get back on “his tiny useless feet”, but it fails. “Groggily somersaulting to get airborne”, but unable to do so. The writer helps the reader visualise the bird’s struggles, it is described as “a broken toy”. The use of a metaphor there increases the effects of the description. With this description we feel sympathy for the poor bird. His attempts to save the birds every year that are unable to fly are always in vain, “the inevitable balsa death”. Although he very well knows this, every year he comes back to the fallen birds, and attempts to treat them. He keeps them “nested in a scarf” and feed them “meat-crumbs and flies”, but as always they do not respond. Although the bird is unable to do what it was born to do, fly, it is unable to. But the bird is described as a “Little Apollo”, to show that it had strength.
Throughout the poem, the poet helps us visualise the quick movement of the birds, but he also uses juxtaposition to contrast between the birds. The way in which the birds “Power-thrust” shows us that the birds fly with immense strength. An image of fear is developed when the birds are “Erupting” and the “Schrapnel-scatter terror” of the birds adds to this effect. However then at times, the poet describes these birds as soft and fragile creatures, after they power-thrust, they “flicker” and are also “gentle”. This contradictory example shows the contrast between their speed which at times looks to be uncontrollable like a “lunatic limber scramming frenzy”.
The poet teaches us to not interfere with the powerful forces of nature, through showing us his attempts to save the birds that are always in vain.
The writer captured the image of the bird and conveyed it to the reader as clearly as possible. The image of a very quick and erratic group of birds flying in a certain direction with pin-point accuracy is given to the reader. We know that they are powerful, fearful creatures which can be delicate at times.
