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Let’s have another sonnet from that Burt and Mikics book. Robert Frost takes us back to the Garden of Eden, adding another romantic touch to the tragic love story of Adam and Eve, adding an oversound to Milton’s immortal song. This is before the fall from grace, and Adam is still obviously very much in deep enchantment and love with his Eve.
_ _ _
He would declare and could himself believe
That the birds there in all the Garden round
From having heard the daylong voice of Eve
Had added to their own an oversound,
Her tone of meaning but without the words.
Admitted an eloquence so soft
Could only have had an influence on birds
When call or laughter carried it aloft.
Be that as may be, she was in their song.
Moreover her voice upon their voice crossed
Had now persisted in the woods so long
That probably it never would be lost.
Never again would birds’ song be the same.
And to do that to birds was why she came.
-- “Never Again Would Birds’ Song Be the Same” by Robert Frost
For the record, the editors tell us, “The oversound is what matters when you read a line of poetry.” So, we can understand that Frost contains in this poem also an ode to poetry and the subtle immortality that is sung in the best poetry.
_ _ _
He would declare and could himself believe
That the birds there in all the Garden round
From having heard the daylong voice of Eve
Had added to their own an oversound,
Her tone of meaning but without the words.
Admitted an eloquence so soft
Could only have had an influence on birds
When call or laughter carried it aloft.
Be that as may be, she was in their song.
Moreover her voice upon their voice crossed
Had now persisted in the woods so long
That probably it never would be lost.
Never again would birds’ song be the same.
And to do that to birds was why she came.
-- “Never Again Would Birds’ Song Be the Same” by Robert Frost
For the record, the editors tell us, “The oversound is what matters when you read a line of poetry.” So, we can understand that Frost contains in this poem also an ode to poetry and the subtle immortality that is sung in the best poetry.
