The Woodpecker Keeps Returning
Jane Hirshfield 1953
The woodpecker keeps returning
to drill the house wall.
Put a pie plate over one place, he chooses another.
There is nothing good to eat there:
he has found in the house
a resonant billboard to post his intentions,
his voluble strength as provider.
But where is the female he drums for? Where?
I ask this, who am myself the ruined siding,
the handsome red-capped bird, the missing mate.
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Written on 2006
Submitted by Drone232 on April 16, 2022
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 23 sec read
- 8 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AXB CXXB C AX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 389 |
Words | 79 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 4, 1, 2 |
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"The Woodpecker Keeps Returning" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/124955/the-woodpecker-keeps-returning>.
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