A Route of Evanescence

The compact poem offers a brief description of a hummingbird, but it holds a strong and powerful message in form and structure. The reader can break the eight-lined poem down into two stanzas consisting of four lines. The two stanzas will therefore help the reader to understand the depth and meaning of the poem. Each stanza is different in form and meaning and as a result, the contrast creates a sense of time and movement for the reader.

The first “stanza” starts out with the first sight of the hummingbird. The speaker in the poem uses exotic words suc

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h as “Evanescence” (1), “Resonance” (2), and “Cochineal” (3) to grab the reader’s attention and illustrate how exotic the hummingbird actually is. The word “revolving” (2) describes the flapping motion of the bird’s wings and compares the repetition of the “R” to the wing movement. The speaker accuses the flower of adjusting its “Head” (6) when in actuality flowers do not have heads. In addition, the beauty of the poem makes a hummingbird seem more elegant, and more respected. In lines 1 and 3, the endings veer off and it is hard to find the meter.

Since hummingbirds show quick movements, the effect is that the hummingbird does not stay for long in one place. This occurrence is seen as a loop: a nonrhyming ending then a rhyming ending that repeats, such as the rhyme of “a, b, c, b. In addition, the sound of the “R” words such as “Resonance” (3) and “Rush” (4), cause the reader to “hear” or imagine the quick movement in the hummingbird’s wings. The poet uses “mail” (7) that traveled supposedly from “Tunis” (7) in a morning to show how the hummingbird comes and goes. Lines 6 and 8 show slant rhyme, which take the “perfect” rhyme away from the first stanza, as to say the hummingbird caused to scene to be elegant while there, now it’s just bland. No distinct rhyme is found between lines 1 and 3, but “Wheel” (2) and “Cochineal” (4) are a perfect rhyme. This is due to the words “Evanescence” (1) and “Emerald” (2).

In this poem, the speaker paints a vivid picture of a hummingbird moving rapidly, and once the bird has collected nectar from the flower, the bird is quickly gone. Lines 1 and 3’s meter is iambic tetrameter, and lines 2 and 4 are iambic trimeter.

Common topics in this essay:
Route Evanescence, lines 1, 1 3, hummingbirds wings, lines 1 3, movement hummingbirds wings, scene hummingbird, words evanescence 1, movement hummingbird, lines 2, movement hummingbirds, rapid movement, wheel 2, iambic tetrameter,

Approximate Word count = 657
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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