Humming-Bird Flashcards
The world in ancient times seemed like a whole other universe with no living things
in some otherworld
Primeval-dumb, far back
Hummingbirds were ahead of evolution. They had the world to themselves and were free to do as they pleased. Lawrence seems to yearn for that loneliness and solitude (Delight of being alone) and admire them
Humming-birds raced down the avenues.
Life in its most basic, simplistic form. When life was not complicated as it is now.
Before anything had a soul
The hummingbirds are seen as precious and he praises them. Considered glorious
This little bit chipped off in brilliance
Sibilance & onomatopoeia. It could be seen zooming around eating what it pleased because it had the world to itself. Use of 3 & contrast of speed of the bird against the world surrounding it
And went whizzing through the slow, vast, succulent stems
Lawrence’s imagination. There was nothing else as spectacular or pretty as the hummingbird.
I believe there were no flowers then
Hummingbirds were totally ahead of their times. Nothing could catch up to it in its full glory
the humming-bird flashed ahead of creation
He imagines what it was like at the time. He thinks it was gigantic just like dinosaurs once were. Seems to be in utter astonishment and admires it. Alliteration
Probably he was big
As mosses, and little lizards, they say, were once big
Lawrence things it was something to be feared in this other world. It need to be big to survive and it had nothing to fear
Probably he was a jabbing, terrifying monster.
Personification of Time. Looking through a telescope the wrong way makes the hummingbird smaller as it is now. We are not admiring it for what it possibly once was, just taking it for granted with the limited perspective that it was always this way and humans were always the best creation
We look at him through the wrong end of the long telescope of Time
Ominous end. We are lucky that the hummingbird has evolved to this smaller bird because otherwise it would be a thing of our nightmares. We have escaped/evaded the monsters
Luckily for us.
