Analysis of The Oven Bird

Robert Frost 1874 (San Francisco) – 1963 (Boston)



There is a singer eveyone has heard,
Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird,
Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.
He says that leaves are old and that for flowers
Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.
He says the early petal-fall is past,
When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers
On sunny days a moment overcast;
And comes that other fall we name the fall.
He says the highway dust is over all.
The bird would cease and be as other birds
But that he knows in singing not to sing.
The question that he frames in all but words
Is what to make of a diminished thing.


Scheme AABCBDCDEEFGFG
Poetic Form
Metre 11010111 1011000111 1101011101 11111101110 1101111111 1101010111 11010111010 110101010 0111011101 110111101 0111011101 1111010111 0101110111 1111100101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 575
Words 116
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 451
Words per stanza (avg) 114
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 19, 2023

34 sec read
153

Robert Frost

Robert Lee Frost was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in America. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. more…

All Robert Frost poems | Robert Frost Books

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