"With the pathos of a half-fledged thing set free"
He pities the bird as it has to leap out of the nest without being ready yet. The bird is representative of his son growing up.
"With the pathos of a half-fledged thing set free"
"like a satellite wrenched from its orbit"
"How selfhood begins with a walking away, And love is proved in the letting go."
Discusses how parents must sacrifice their own feelings for the independence of their own child. At the end of the poem, & shows his gradual acceptance of letting go.
"How selfhood begins with a walking away, And love is proved in the letting go."
Cecil Day-Lewis wrote this poem about his relationship with his son as he leaves to go to boarding school. It's about how he coped with the pain of letting go & came to letting him take that leap of faith.
Regular stanza structure of 4 stanzas & 5 lines.
Caesurae followed by enjambment through the poem show the unpredictability & lack of control over his son.
Set in autumn to convey that things are changing, which is ultimately inevitable.
