Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Brigit Pegeen Kelly?s "Of Royal Issue" is a meditation on nature, perception, and the transformation of the mundane into the sacred through observation and imagination. The poem’s central image—a small wren in a barren forsythia bush—serves as a lens through which the poet examines the interplay between stillness, latent potential, and the cycles of renewal.

The poem opens with an image of the sun likened to a "small bird flitting," immediately tying celestial grandeur to the diminutive and the overlooked. This metaphor reflects the poem?s exploration of scale and significance, as the wren, initially described as "nothing again but a brown thing," occupies a space of quiet insignificance in the boy’s eyes. The forsythia bush, stripped of its golden blooms in winter, becomes another symbol of dormancy and seeming ordinariness. The poem’s tone in these opening lines is muted, mirroring the subdued winter landscape and the boy’s fleeting attention.

Kelly?s language subtly shifts as she foreshadows the arrival of spring, a time when the "royal bloodline" of the forsythia will reassert itself in a "tide of gold." This transformation of the bush from a barren tangle of branches to a "small inland sea" of blossoms underscores the cyclical nature of growth and renewal. The wren becomes the bush’s herald, speaking "words of royal issue, / tongue after tongue," its song imbued with significance as it announces the bush?s rebirth. This shift elevates the bird and the bush from their current state of insignificance to a realm of beauty and reverence.

The poem also delves into the human tendency to impose meaning on the natural world, as the speaker contemplates the idea of trapping the wren to amplify its song. This act, described with both fascination and a touch of irony, suggests an urge to transform the ephemeral beauty of the bird’s call into something lasting and multiplied, "not one bird but a hundred, / not one tongue but a thousand." Yet this impulse to possess and replicate highlights the tension between the transient nature of the bird?s song and humanity’s desire for permanence and control.

The boy, with his "game with a stick and a rock," embodies both innocence and restlessness, mirroring the natural world’s constant state of motion. His later act of tying "white strips of the bed sheets" to the trees, "for no reason," reflects a compulsion to create and to mark the world with his presence, echoing the wren’s instinctive call. This act of seemingly purposeless creativity resonates with the poem’s meditation on the interplay between spontaneity and intention, between the ordinary and the extraordinary.

Kelly’s use of language is both precise and lyrical, with her imagery creating a vivid sensory experience. The forsythia’s eventual transformation into a "tide of gold" and the wren’s song as a "sweet prophecy of the wind" imbue the natural world with a quiet majesty. The "low patches of wild onion" and the "red-bellied birds" evoke a tactile and grounded sense of place, while the more abstract reflections on "common blood" and the "bird of the blood" draw the reader into a contemplative space.

The poem ultimately suggests that beauty and significance are not inherent qualities but arise through attention and imagination. The wren, the forsythia, and the boy’s actions gain meaning through the speaker’s gaze and the transformative power of language. Kelly captures the fragile yet persistent vitality of life in winter’s stillness and the promise of spring, inviting readers to see the ordinary as worthy of reverence and the transient as capable of profound resonance.

In "Of Royal Issue," Kelly weaves a rich tapestry of imagery and thought, exploring themes of renewal, perception, and the human connection to nature. The poem stands as a testament to the power of observation and the ability of language to elevate even the smallest, most overlooked details into something enduringly beautiful.

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