6 responses

  1. Jean
    August 16, 2020

    I haven’t thought of this poem for many many years (I am 85 ).
    I went to parochial school and once in the 6 th grade the nun began reciting this poem, being only 11 yrs old it struck me funny. I couldn’t stop laughing at the sounds she was making reciting the words. Needless to say , I was told to stand in the back of the room until I could control myself which took a long time because there are eight verses. Will always remember
    Bobolink!

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  2. Gwyn Loud
    August 18, 2018

    Can you tell me why Bryant says “Robert of Lincoln”?

    Gwyn Loud (from Lincoln, MA)

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    • William Freedberg
      August 20, 2018

      “Robert of Lincoln” is a play on the word “Bobolink”– The author probably imagined “bob o’ link” as a nickname or abbreviation for “Robert of Lincoln.” I think making the bird’s name into a human name is a nice way to extend the poem’s metaphor!

      Reply

    • Pamela McGinnis
      November 27, 2021

      Robert of Lincoln is another play on Bob O’ Linc
      the name of the bird attributed to the sing it sings. I heard its song every summer on the farm I grew up on. I hope it is still there. But seeing through the years the mowing of acres of grass, instead of just allowing it to grow and perhaps return to woods, the real landscape of Ohio’s natives of a thousand years ago. Not like so many of my neighbors… a mowed couple of acres at least. I have not mowed in twenty years. I live among birds and bees, in a woods around me.
      Thank you so much for beautiful poems about beautiful birds.

      Reply

  3. Alice Morgan
    August 17, 2018

    Enjoyed both poems!

    Reply

  4. Susie Feldman
    August 17, 2018

    Will, I adored this posting! Marvelous verse choices, and delightful images! I cannot prefer one over the other, as Dickinson’s is written from the human point of view, and Bryant’s is very anthropomorphic, but loved them both! That you very much for this mixture of science and art!

    Reply

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