Freedom and Constriction

The poem uses several different approaches to show the contrast and relationship between freedom and constriction. In the opening stanzas, the speaker’s daughter is constrained inside her bedroom, held captive by the need to create and express — a sensation all artists will be familiar with. Inside this room the same dynamic is happening in microcosm as the ideas in her head find their way out. The speaker is watching this balance happen from a physical distance as well as an emotional one, though he too is constrained by the bonds of parenthood and love.

Part way through the poem the speaker visits a memory of the trapped starling, using the animal as a symbol for this dynamic between freedom and restraint they see playing out inside their daughter. The bird becomes trapped in the confined space of the bedroom, unable to find its...