The Air Was Literally Filled With Pigeons By Annie Dillard

There are birds in every crevice of this planet, flying high in the sky, leaving little traces of their existence scattered. This was expressed in the passages, one by John Audubon and another by Annie Dillard. Both passages depicted the beauty of these creatures as they flew in the sky. However, the topic might be the same, there are many differences in how this topic is expressed, and the effect that this has on the audience. Audubon describes a day in which there were an immense amount of birds in the passing flocks, and feeling the urge, went to count the numbers. He then describes how the air was filled with Pigeons, stating: “The air was literally filled with Pigeons: the light of noon-day was obscured as by an eclipse…”. In this sentences Audubon expresses the amount of birds in the sky using a metaphor to connect to the

The passage is full of descriptions of these flocks, expressing the beauty of these flocks. The impact of this, is showing the audience the beauty in these creatures, as a whole. Annie Dillard took a different approach to expressing this meaning. Dillard describes the sky dotted with the birds, coming closer to her, and then disappearing into the trees. Dillard uses a similar technique as Audubon using various similes and metaphors to convey the beauty of the birds to her audience. For instance, “It was the starlings going to roost. They gathered deep in the distance, flock sifting into flock, and strayed towards me, transparent and whirling like smoke.” Dillard compares the birds to smoke as well as starlings. Dillard then continues to describe the birds and the beauty of