Bird (Symbol)
The bird is the poem's central symbol. It is the speaker's main focus and the entire text closely follows its actions. Interestingly, however, the bird is not given a simple or direct significance. In the poem's opening, the bird is shown eating a worm, which the speaker describes with unnervingly visceral intensity. But subsequently, the reader sees the bird in a slightly more serene manner, as it drinks dew from a blade of grass and steps aside for a beetle. The speaker also shows it observing its surrounding with some caution and taking off into the air. The complexity with which the speaker paints the bird is all part of what the bird comes to symbolize: its own irreducibility. The speaker is unable to apply one label to the bird that accounts for all the things that she sees it do. In this way, the bird becomes a symbol for the problem of oversimplifying nature.
Rowboat (Symbol)
The poem makes a leap into more abstract imagery in its final stanza. The most detailed symbol it describes is a rowboat. The rowboat comes to symbolize the bird's flight, as the speaker compares a rowboat lightly cutting across the surface of water to the bird's gliding through the air. The bird's wings are in parallel with the oars of the boat. The picture of the rowboat moving with uncanny ease across the water, leaving behind a wake like a silver "seam," accentuates the bird's poise. The speaker reaches for this particular description because she does not want to be overly concrete. The bird has left her gaze and, as such, she needs language that goes beyond what she can actually perceive. This image is an important one in that it elaborates on the bird's flight while maintaining a degree of mystery. The description isn't so much literal as it is intuitive. The speaker is describing an impression of the bird's grace, not a direct explanation of the mechanics of its flight. The rowboat, in this instance, is a symbol of the bird's majesty and mystery.
Fear (Motif)
Fear is depicted throughout the poem as a recurring motif. Initially, the speaker finds herself frightened by the bird's bloody consumption of the worm. Then, it is the bird itself that appears frightened as it rapidly observes its surroundings. Finally, the speaker nervously offers the bird a tribute in the form of a small crumb. While all of these fears initially look circumstantial, more broadly the poem seems interested in looking at how fear hinges on the unknown. The bird seems afraid because it can't see potential threats. The speaker is afraid of the brutality of the bird. The common thread between these moments is a fear rooted in a lack of understanding. The speaker is unnerved by her inability to accurately perceive the bird. She is caught off guard in the opening scene and remains apprehensive because she cannot find a satisfactory explanation of exactly what the bird is in light of this disturbing moment. Fear, as portrayed in the poem, is deeply rooted in what is felt but not properly understood. The speaker's initial impression of the bird lingers because she cannot shake the sense that she does not grasp its true nature.
