The Bird And The Arras Poem Analysis

The Bird and the Arras, is a poem written by Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661-1720), she has always been a recognised author, but the recognition of her works have been revived in the last years. Her poetry reflects her thoughts and personal experiences, but also the social and political situation of the era (18th century, England). As in the case of the poem “The Bird and the Arras”, the author describes the situation of the women of the time by the using of the symbol of the bird. During the poem, the room where the bird is trapped, which has a high ceiling, has an arras, and the bird tries to follow the birds that appear on the arras. As a consequence of trying to follow the birds that appear on the arras it hits against the ceiling. The impact that it receives is so hard that the bird falls into the ground. When it recovers its breath, it sees the window and tries to reach it because it can see the outside, but it smashed itself. This is related with the society of the time in which it was believed that women did not have any kind of capacity, so they were supposed to write, talk and know about easy topics. The poem describes this little moment

On a literal way the poem is describing how a bird tries to escape from a room because it is lock in it, which is a dramatic situation, as it is described in the poem. The first interpretation, is that “she” will be free when “she” dies, as every time “she” tries to reach freedom fails “And leads to ample space, the only Heav’n of Birds”. The second is more pessimistic as it concludes that “she” will never be free, as every time “she” tries to reach that freedom there is a hindrance or it is not what she expected. Another interpretation would be that “she” thinks that there is a world out there because “she” can see it, but every time “she” tries to get to that world “she” fails so “she” realises that it is a bogus