CHAPTER: SIX
BIRD IMAGERY IN SONNETS OF
SHAKESPEARE
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Shakespeare wrote nearly 154 sonnets that deal with themes of time, love,
beauty and mortality. Shakespeare’s imagery of nature is rich, full with descriptions of
animals and birds with a major role bestowed to the birds. He had an intense eye the
minute detail of nature. Shakespeare compares proud and impulsive Coriolanus to an
eagle: the eagle shaking moisture from its wings after a bath or the allied osprey that
takes a fish 'by sovereignty of nature' (Coriolanus 4:7:34). We find striking proofs of
bird watching with mention of dabchick, jackdaws. Antony is likened to a doting
mallard in the mating season.
Shakespeare as a sensitive lover of nature and music, introduces birds for
aesthetic value, sweetness of songs and colours of feathers during plumage. The 'royal'
eagle, the fabulous halcyon (Greek – kingfisher, reputed to calm the sea during
midwinter – Pocket Oxford Dictionary), the biblical sparrow, the motherliness of the
domestic hen, the pride of the peacock, the squalid vulture, the greedy cormorant are
all put to apt symbolic uses, and also are subjects of repeated allusions. However, one
should take note that Shakespeare’s reference of birds are lesser in comparison to his
use of birds in the play. This may be because of the larger canvas the plays offer.
Moreover, the use of bird symbols as tools to signify so many things. Therefore,
Shakespeare has probably used birds in drama as well as in sonnets.
Shakespeare took birds as part of the world to which any sensitive human being
capable of appreciating the finer things of life would respond. In such a context, a birdsong serves as background music, enhancing the goodness innate in the very process
of living.
It can be said by way of summing up that nearly all the major orders, exceeding
sixty species, are represented in Shakespeare's works. There is not a single play or a
poem that does not contain some bird references. As Rangswami notes, an admiring
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contemporary, Ben Jonson, in a posthumous prophetic tribute to his friend's future
greatness, coined the famous phrase 'sweet swan of Avon' (Dawkins 75).
Poets, in general, have made much use of birds in their poetry from ancient to
modern times. The range of such poetry is such that it can only be covered by an insight
beyond the reach of even the most attentive student of world literature (S.
Rangaswami). Of all the English bards, Shakespeare remains unsurpassed, be it in the
number of species that drew his attention or his unmistakable delight and interest in
wildlife. This aspect of Shakespeare's work is something more than poetic knowledge
and talent. One can even go to the extent of saying that it is a proof of personal fondness,
and that he was a bird lover, and not an ornithologist, not even a naturalist. But as a
country-born poet, he had ample opportunities to watch a variety of living things during
the most impressionable years of his life. Also, as argued by S. Rangaswami there is
proof that he was of a compassionate temperament. The cruel Elizabethan sport of cock
fighting aroused his feelings of pity.
In a broader spectrum, it can be said that a majority of poets use birds merely
as a form of symbolism. They bring them into their poetry mainly to illustrate some
striking qualities, to serve as similes and metaphors. They focus their attention on
certain features of bird behaviour and attribute to these traits a human significance.
Like, owls suggest wisdom, apparently due to the look on their faces, they also suggest
a kind of fright by their eerie hoots or screeches which mar the silence of the night.
The nightingale signifies melancholy, the lark signifies joy that lifts the human
spirit far above things earthly, the turtle dove fidelity in love, the robin friendliness, the
swallow the coming and going of summer, the jackdaw mischief and so on-all ideas
with strong human associations.
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In the manner of earlier chapters, this chapter also discusses the birds
characteristics and expresses the meaning of emotions.
Phoenix
(http://www.propertyshowrooms.com)
The phoenix is a mythological eagle-like bird associated with Egyptian sunworship. Its life-span is believed to be of more than 500 years. It is believed that when
its first life was over, the bird would burn itself upon a pile of wood that was set ablaze
by the sun. It would then rise from the ashes, once again young. Here, Shakespeare
seems to be saying that, despite the Phoenix's ability to resurrect itself, it cannot escape
Time forever.
Sonnet 19
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger’s jaws,
And burn the long-lived phoenix, in her blood,
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet’st. (3-5)
In Sonnet 19, the poet addresses Time and using vivid animal imagery,
comments on Time's standard effects on nature. The poet then commands Time not to
age the young man and ends by boldly asserting that the poet's own creative talent will
make the youth permanently young and beautiful. However, uninspired the sonnet as
a whole might seem, the imagery of animals is particularly vivid.
However, nature's threatening the youth's beauty does not matter, for the poet
confidently asserts that the youth will gain immortality as the subject of the sonnets.
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Because poetry is eternal, it only stands to reason that his poetry about the young man
will ensure the youth's immortality. The youth as the physical subject of the sonnets
will age and eventually die, but in the sonnets themselves he will remain young and
beautiful. Phoenix, here, stands for the immortality of the youth. If the Time will burn
the freshness of youth, poet’s skill will reform the life of youth through his poetry.
Lark
(http://www.avibirds.com)
Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Shelley and Wordsworth all shared with
Shakespeare’s adoration for the skylark.
Sonnet 29
Wealth or status does not matter, Shakespeare writes, so long as he has the young
man’s love.
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven’s gate,
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings. (11-14)
Particularly beautiful in this sonnet is the image of “the lark sing at the break of
day arising” The lark rising up from the “sullen earth” represents a love that soars with
the sun beyond worldly cares. Being a lark is better even than being a king, who is
powerful but still of the earth.
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The heaven-bound lark provides a genius emblem for the poem’s attractive,
though admittedly common sentiment. Robert Matez believes that Shakespeare
expresses that lover’s love is more valuable to the beloved than earthly wealth or
possession (41).
Crow
(http://images.fineartamerica.com)
Sonnet 70
The poet says that suspicion is like a decoration of beautiful things.
That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,
For slander’s mark was ever yet the fair;
The ornament of beauty is suspect,
A crow that flies in heaven’s sweetest air. (1-4)
The poet is comparing suspicion with the sweet air of the sky with which the
Fair Youth is compared here: “A crow that flies in heaven’s sweetest air”. He probably
wants to say that though the bad birds fly in the sweet sky, yet the sky is not tainted
thereby (Sarker 261).
Sonnet 73
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. (1-4)
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The topic of William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 is old age, and the theme is how
a person is affected by seeing someone they love age.
This line may be referring to the ruins of a place where actual birds once sang
– in the warmer seasons of spring or summer, which again brings to mind images of
youth – or where a choir once sang (metaphorically calling them birds) – which also
brings to mind the image of youth and a day when the ruins were not ruins, instead a
lively congregation. Ruins are image of old age in that they were once new, “young”
building but are now broken down and unusable, just as a human body withers and
becomes unusable.
Hawk
(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk)
Sonnet 91
Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,
Some in their wealth, some in their body's force,
Some in their garments though new-fangled ill;
Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse;
And every humour hath his adjunct pleasure,
Wherein it finds a joy above the rest:
But these particulars are not my measure,
All these I better in one general best. (1-8)
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Shakespeare tells the Fair Youth that some people are proud of their high birth,
some of their ‘knowledge and intelligence’ (‘Skill’) some of their great mass of wealth,
some of their muscular strength (‘body’s force’), some of their accoutrements
(garments), some of their exhibits of hawks and hounds and some of their presentable
horses. To the poet, the love of the Fair Youth is better than birth in the upper crust of
the society. In the opinion of Sarker, the love of the youth is more enjoyment than
domesticated hawks and trained horses (299-300).
Philomel
(http://www.thanington-pc.gov.uk)
Sonnet 102
My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming;
I love not less, though less the show appear;
That love is merchandized, whose rich esteeming,
The owner's tongue doth publish everywhere.
Our love was new, and then but in the spring,
When I was wont to greet it with my lays;
As Philomel in summer's front doth sing. (1-7)
Philomel is the classical name for the nightingale which apparently sings in
early summer in Europe. Shakespeare mentions it in his Midsummer Night’s
Dream, “Philomel with melody, Sing in our sweet lullaby” (A Midsummer Night’s
Dream 2:2:13).
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According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, Philomela was turned into a nightingale
after taking revenge on her brother in law, Tereus, for being raped by him. Shakespeare,
here, does not focus on the brutal story, but refers only to the sweet singing of the
nightingale.
The nightingale sings most in early summer while seeking a mate.
The tunes of the nightingale become stale in the middle of summer because we hear
them at the coming of the spring. So, Shakespeare deliberately notes the front of
summer or the beginning of the summer.
Crow – dove
Crow
(http://www.rspb.org.uk)
Dove
(http://ibc.lynxeds.com)
This sonnet is written in the memory of a friend. An ardent feeling of love is
presented in the sonnet for the beloved friend:
Sonnet – 113
For it no form delivers to the heart
Of bird, of flower, or shape which it doth latch,
Of his quick objects hath the mind no part,
Nor his own vision holds what it doth catch:
For if it see the rud’st or gentlest sight,
The most sweet favour or deformed’st creature,
The mountain or the sea, the day or night,
The crow, or dove, it shapes them to your feature.
Incapable of more, replete with you,
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My most true mind thus maketh mine untrue. (5-14)
The poet is not able to bear the truth that his beloved friend has left him. He can
think nothing else but remembers his friend. His eyes no longer see the outer world
save the image of the beloved. Birds, flowers and other forms cannot enter his mind
since it is filled with the image of his love. Whatever he sees, ugly or beautiful, is
transformed into the beloved, and also the perfect inner image makes his outer vision
false.
Dowden believes that memory of Shakespeare’s beloved friend is so strong that
it turns everything into an indication, and in the process turns the world and its visual
objects into representation of the friend (2).
Raven
(http://static.zoom.nl)
Sonnet 127
This sonnet is written on the beauty of a Dark Lady. On the matter of a Dark
Lady’s blackness, there are several references in the sonnet to her use of cosmetics,
particularly eye shadow.
Therefore my mistress’ eyes are raven black,
Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem. (9-10)
The beauty of ‘eyes’ is expressed as raven black. Meaning, her eyes are clothed
(adorned) in kohl - black powder used as eye makeup. (Pocket Oxford Dictionary)
There is also a pun on ‘suited’ = ‘sooted’ as the words were similarly pronounced in
Shakespeare’s time (Honneyman 69). Raven black stands for the blackness of a raven,
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because it is recognized for its pitch black colour. Black, here, probably refers to the
iris, which might be either black or dark-coloured.
Shakespeare proved himself not only an outstanding playwright but also an
excellent poet, known as the ‘Bard of Avon.’ Unlike his plays, the sonnets exhibit his
quality as an ornithologist. One can find a vivid reflection of a colourful vista of
feathered forest dwellers in his works. Not many of them but some of his sonnets can
be considered a very good medium to present bird symbols. The Phoenix, a bird very
much present in our imagination as an immortal bird, Shakespeare very skillfully uses
the symbol to make a mortal youth an immortal figure. The lark is known as a singing
bird. In Sonnet No. 29 Shakespeare refers to it as the herald of morning who brings
freshness. With the lark, one more singing bird, the nightingale, is mentioned in Sonnet
No. 92. Shakespeare’s observation or his adaptation of contemporary belief seems to
note that the nightingale sings most in early summer, while seeking a mate. The tunes
of the nightingale are stale in the middle of summer, because we hear them at the
coming of the spring. As discussed in early chapters, a vast variety of birds are an
integral part of Shakespeare’s works.
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Horsfield, Knight. English Bird Life. London: Everett & Co., 1908. Print.
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<Lit.Genius.Com/William-Shakespeare-Sonnet-73-Annoted, Note-2378953> Web.
22nd July 2014. 11:37 AM
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