Bird Shooting Season – Student

Analysis
Mickila Gomez & Adelia Duffrin

Birdshooting Season

Olive Senior

Birdshooting season the men

make marriages with their guns

My father’s house turns macho

as from far the hunters gather

All night long contentless women

stir their brews: hot coffee

chocolata, cerassie

wrap pone and tie-leaf

for tomorrow’s sport. Tonight

the men drink white rum neat.

In darkness shouldering

their packs, their guns, they leave

We stand quietly on the

doorstep shivering. Little boys

longing to grow up birdhunters too

Little girls whispering:

Fly Birds Fly.

Stanza 1- The poem is in the first person POV and is set at the poet's home. It seems as if it is the
norm for male hunters to gather here in preparation of the bird shooting season. There are many
men present as the poet expresses that “My father's house turns macho”. The first two lines
indicates that the men share a strong relationship or passion with their guns, and it was referred to
as marriage, almost as if the woman or replaced.

Stanza 2- Bird shooting season was intentionally referred to as a sport to further emphasise it as a
recreational activity taken very seriously. This stanza also contrasts the roles of the men and woman
mentioned; as the men were allowed to drink and relax, the women were assigned to food and
beverage preparation, supporting the theme of gender roles. The impression was given that the
women are dissatisfied by their job as they were described as ‘contentless’, giving the reader an
image of emptiness, only serving the purpose to do as told.

Stanza 3- This stanza brings the attention on the men as the climax or anticipated parts of the poem
is slowly approaching. The men leave very late at night in order to journey and await when birds
come out at dawn. Evidence to support that it is at night is that hot beverages/brews will not usually
be served at night, nor will the children be shivering. This stanza also leaves the reader in suspense
of the next occurrence due to the limitation of words used.

Stanza 4- This stanza describes the curiosity and innocence of the onlooking children. This stanza
also supports the theme of gender roles/ expectations due to the portrayal of the children's
thoughts as the contrasted. While boys looked on in awe and aspiration, wanting to carry on the
traditional ‘macho’ roles, the girls on the other hand, express sympathy, kindness, and emotion
towards the birds in effort to pressure them as the weaker or submissive sex.

The tone of the poem was inconsistent throughout the poem as at first it was warm and comforting,
nostalgic to mysterious and cold till eventually innocent and peaking at the audience curiosity.

Literary Devices:
1) Metaphor- Lines 1, 12

2)Imagery- Line 11

Themes:  Gender roles, Children’s curiosity, Childhood experiences, Nature