A Dawning of Dying
In my youth, I saw a bird's ravished body
Lying in the silence of a furrow.
Its auburn feathers were wilted and shoddy,
And ants stripped its flesh and belly thorough.
Strange, so strange imagining this bird to be—
To have once ascended the vaulted blue,
To have woven music in the old oak tree,
Or to have plucked from grass the morning dew ...
And now, alas! struck down from the sky it flew,
This bird, this tiny little creature lies
Displaying a sure message in open view
That whatever comes to live also dies.
In the quietude of that lonely meeting
I marveled dreadfully that this should be:
That death swallows life, and that life is fleeting,
And that all will succumb ...
... including me.
About this poem
This poem is based on a real event that occurred very early in my youth when I first became acutely aware—as if by some strange enlightenment or dawning—of the ontic reality of death, hence the title.
Font size:
Translation
Find a translation for this poem in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"A Dawning of Dying" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/135246/a-dawning-of-dying>.
Discuss the poem A Dawning of Dying with the community...
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In