DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- What do you understand by the word 'dominion'? What is its function in Hope's poem?
- A.D. Hope once said that his composition of 'The Death of the Bird' had been interrupted, and wondered whether the reader could tell where in the poem the interruption had occurred.
Where in the poem do you think this might have happened? What makes you think do?
- Hope's poem is a moving account of the death of a migratory bird. Is it also about something else? What particular lines and images make you think so, and what is this something else that the poem seems to you to be about?
- It has been said that there are two kinds of journey in this poem, and two kinds of migration.
Do you see them? What is their relationship to one another?
- Love is mentioned so frequently in this poem that it could almost be said to be a poem about love, but how?
What function does 'love' perform within the poem?
- There has been, recently, some controversy concerning whether this poem should be seen as a 'universal' poem or as a particularly Australian poem.
Which side would you take, and why?
What particular lines and images in the poem lead you to make this choice?
