Question

who are the characters in minor bird by robert frost

Fivejedjon · Accepted Answer

Anonymous who are the characters in minor bird by robert frost

Who are the characters in "Minor Bird" by Robert Frost?

Try reading it and you will find out.

Anonymous · Answer

At a first glance, the speaker is Frost, and he's talking about a noisy bird. But after all, this is America's premier poet, and such a simple explanation just doesn't fly. A run-of-the-mill high schooler could write a similar poem about a noisy bird.

I've seen an interpretation where the bird is a bird, but the poem addresses Frost's longtime fragile mental state, but even this seems too simplistic from a poet of this caliber. So, the question: "Who are the characters?", is indeed the question here.

There might be clues to this in the words of the poem. There are a number of unusual usages. First, the word "minor" in the title, an odd word to use to describe a bird. Of course, one might say this has musical connotations, and the bird is singing, but that's junior high school metaphor.

In the third line, "clapped my hands." Conceivably one might clap to drive a bird away, but clapping of the hands has strong connotations in English. One typically claps hands in special situations only.

Line 4, "could hear no more." These are strong words, wasted on a ditty about a noisy bird?

Line 5, "fault." Another strong word that seems out of place if this is about a bird.

Line 6, "key." Again, too strong a word for the apparent situation. Is this a hint to the real key to the poem?

Line 7, "something wrong." Indeed, there is something wrong here, a world class poet wasting his precious lines to put down a noisy bird.

Line 8, "silence," as a verb. The verb "silence" is rarely used except in very emphatic situations.

And the word "bird" itself. This word can have controversial overtones in English.

So the above seem to hint at a more cryptic nature to the poem. "Minor" as possible reference to the poet's younger days. "Bird," controversial activities as a youth? "Clapped my hands" to what? "Fault," an admission to wrongdoing? "Key" implies lock and lock implies secret. "Something wrong" here? "Silence" is what the poet seems to be trying to do to something or someone. But the poet has taken the secret with him to the grave.

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