Analysis Of Jacques Prevert's Poem To Portray A Bird

Jacques Prévert 's poem, "to portray a bird" gives unrealistic instructions on the steps to create a painting of a bird. Prévert lived from 1900 to 1977 and this poem was written in 1946 which is part of the "Words" collection. The poem is a version of poetry, written in free verse with six stanzas that contain different lengths of words. The poem uses simple language and most verbs are written in the infinitive. The poem places emphasis on the subject of the painting rather than how to create the painting. The poem mentions the materials needed to create the painting as brushes or canvas, but does not go into detail about them. The poem focuses on the painter’s quest is to find the bird, portray it on the canvas, and then observe its actions. …show more content…
The forty-eight total lines of the poem are broken down into six stanzas consisting of various amounts of lines, each line having no particular length. These six stanzas provide details about Prevert’s intentions for the poem and the progression within it, with each stanza describing a step in the process of capturing the bird through paint. At the beginning of the poem, the lines are mostly short which provides some insight into what comes next, but at the end of the poem line lengths are highly irregular. Events are described chronologically, creating a sense of order despite irregularity in other aspects. The first two stanzas give information about what to paint in the background, both for the cage and the surrounding nature the cage will exist in. These stanzas are similar in number and length of lines. The brevity of each line results in a choppy and fast paced rhythm. The third and shortest stanza describes the actions of the bird, and the timeline to expect to wait to see it. This stanza allows the reader to see that the bird is in control, yet the mere three lines used to describe the bird create a sense of mystery and hope that the bird will one day come. The fourth stanza teaches the importance of patience while waiting for the bird, followed by the fifth stanza which provides instructions about what to do when the bird actually arrives. In these stanzas the lengths of lines increase and words are more varied and complicated. …show more content…
La forme of the poem tells this tale of simplicity, whereas the fond is where the bird as a symbol for hope, patience, and freedom becomes fully evident. The relationship between the bird and the painter is complicated yet beautiful. In the exact same way that if a painter is able to seek out a bird, wait patiently for it, tend to its surroundings with care, and test to see if the bird will sing, man must set goals and wait patiently to take action, have hope during the process, and finally work carefully to achieve the goal. If in the end man is happy, in the words of Prevert, one can “ecrivez votre nom dans un coin du