Symbol Analysis
Ah, that grumpy, little swamp thrush. It's alone, it hates most folks, and yet it can't help singing its head off. It also can't help symbolizing the mysterious and unconscious world where the speaker comes to have a better understanding of death. The song they sing together becomes part of the speaker's soul and therefore is also an essential element to the speaker's consolation in the face of grief and woe. Thanks bunches, thrushy.
- Lines 18-22: The first time we see the hermit-bird, we know there's a connection. The speaker and the thrush both do the same thing in those "secluded recesses." They sing their song in that solitary and mysterious swamp that's symbolic of the more unconscious part of humanity.
- Lines 66-68: At this point, the speaker "understands" the bird and his song. So in essence, he understands death and all the unconscious-mysterious stuff a bit better. He can relate now to the hermit-bird in their shared understanding of death through song.
- Lines 126-128: The hermit-bird "receives" the speaker, so we get that both have a mutual understanding now of death. Together they compose a "carol for death" that's not scary, but rather uplifting and celebratory of that "dark mother always gliding near."
- Lines 205-207: And once more we see that the speaker has now been spiritually transformed due to the bird's "wondrous song." His soul is "twined" with all the bird and the star, everyone is feeling a whole lot better about this death thing.