“I have heard the sunset song of the birches,”

“I have heard the sunset song of the birches,
A white melody in the silence,
I have seen a quarrel of the pines.
At nightfall
The little grasses have rushed by me
With the wind men.
These things have I lived,” quoth the maniac,
“Possessing only eyes and ears.
But you —
You don green spectacles before you look at roses.”

Analysis, meaning and summary of Stephen Crane's poem “I have heard the sunset song of the birches,”

2 Comments

  1. Kara says:

    I also like this poem it shows that you have meaning and the you don’t have to show (but you have to except)the things others tell you in my oppinion

  2. GJB says:

    This is a beautiful poem and one of my favorite Crane poems. It is about how the “maniac”, a man rejected by society, sits in nature and interprets his surroundings in his own way. He can observe nature purely through his own eyes and ears. The “you” (probably society in general) person in the poem can’t even enjoy nature how it is – the person distorts it with his green spectacles and refuses to see the roses except through the distorted glasses, or viewpoint, society has given him.

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