hummingbirds mary oliver Flashcards
What size were the birds? They were…
no bigger than my thumb
Where were they?
They were scattered on the branches of a tree
The poet didn’t intend to scare them. She…
meant no harm
the birds, like tiny fireworks,
rose and hovered
both the birds’ feet and the branches are very delicate. The birds’ feet are …
dainty and the branches are slender
the moon, like the birds,…
rose
darkness, unlike the moon and the birds,…
fell
the chicks before flying for the first time they have to…
burst the ledges of their mossy nest
the movement of the birds’ wings in the air is likened to a …
dollop of flight, drawing a perfect wheel across the air
the birds pause in front of the poet and…
stare at her as if she was a flower
colour adjectives associated with the water in the poem…
sea-green, silvery
the top of the tree is also called its
crown
where does the poet stay sat down/seated?
in the crown of the tree
what is the word that is repeated in the 1st and last stanza? What effect does that repetition have?
‘shimmering’ equates the hummingbirds to heart-stabbing questions without answers
