To Waken An Old Lady

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1917

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

Flock of Birds

The dominant symbol in “To Waken an Old Lady” is self-evidently the flock of birds—or “flight of small / cheeping birds” (Lines 2-3). The birds are the metaphoric stand in for old age, but as a symbol the flock contains more nuanced shades of meaning. As a feature of a landscape, small “piping” (Line 18) birds are generally associated with spring, rather than winter, scenes. Small birds are commonly associated with birth and renewal, and their “cheeping” (Line 3) birdsong is a common feature of spring scenes used to communicate new life. In this way, Williams plays against expectations with his use of the birds as a symbol of “Old age” (Line 1).

However, birdsong is also connotatively inseparable from awakening to the dawn of a new day. This idea creates a connection between the “Waken[ing]” of the title and the seemingly unrelated “Old age” of the metaphor (Line 1). With these twofold connotative forces, Williams both subverts expectations and reaches across the metaphoric aisle to maintain common sense associations. Because he defines old age in terms of small birds, Williams infuses the concept with life, vitality, and vulnerability, all concepts generally absent from general conceptions of aging.

Winter

While tiny “cheeping birds” (Line 3) may not be generally associated with aging, the season of winter certainly is. In “To Waken an Old Lady,” the winter season plays an important symbolic role in representing mortality and the struggles of growing old. In describing the season, Williams employs images of “bare trees” (Line 5), “dark wind” (Line 9), “harsh weedstalks” (Line 11), and “broken / seedhusks” (Lines 14-15). All of these details combine to portray winter as barren, dangerous, and hostile. Winter is a season against which the birds must always struggle, which “buffet[s]” them (Line 8). All these associations and descriptions contribute to an understanding of old age as difficult and as defined by a lack of bounty. In spring, an animal may feast where she may, enjoying the food and companionship which is all around her. Winter, on the other hand, hides both its food and its companions under lack, cold, and death.

However, as with the small birds, Williams subverts some of the common associations in his use of winter as a symbol of mortality. After all, the poem also describes winter in terms of “snow glaze” (Line 6), and a “snow” (Line 13) covered with the remains of an avian feast, echoing with their “shrill / piping of plenty” (Lines 17-18). Winter is not merely a time of death but one of beauty, and though it is barren on the surface, it still hides feasts of “plenty” for thriving bird flocks (Line 18), accessible by means of practiced wisdom. In this way, Williams develops a layered and complex symbol of mortality. In the poem, winter is symbolic of endings and death, but it is also indicative of the beauty and hidden richness of aging.