Woke up by birds chirping at dawn is beautiful, only it’s far too early in the morning. Usually, I will continue to sleep again until the alarm clock ring.
One morning, I woke up by a bird singing. The singing was so wonderful that I have to pay attention to it. Melodious, low and high voices changing naturally, accelerando and followed by a pause, then the melody went on. Its performance was artistic and elaborately.
Another strange situation on that morning was, only one bird singing. Usually, the birds chirping at dawn sound like an orchestra, different birds chirping from different direction. It seemed to me that on that morning, all birds were clearing the stage for that singing bird to stand out.
Bird singing at dawn, this scenery can be found in one poem by Eduard Mörike. It is a heart breaking poem, about love and disloyalty. A bird came before dawn and sing to the protagonist, to tell her that her lover is cuddling another girl. At the end, Mörike concluded, love and loyalty are like a dream.
To my understanding, this poem is more to describe a feeling if compare to its story line. It was probably true that her lover betrayed her, based on the fact that he was not with her and failed to give her the sense of security.
However, the accusation of disloyalty was unfounded. The message of disloyalty came from the interpretation of the bird’s song, it was not clearly said. In the famous Shakespeare’s tragedy – Othello, he killed his faithful wife out of his own insecurity and blind jealousy. Othello killed his wife based on his interpretation of disloyalty which were only false accusations.
Whether the disloyalty was true or not, that is not the main point of the poem. The main point is, the feeling of insecurity. Dream or awake? Not sure. Night or morning? Not sure. Has the day begun? Not quite, just a little hour before the day begins. Mörike choose this moment of the day to describe the feeling of insecurity in love. I like this analogy so much.
Thankfully, the bird that sing to me on that special morning only made me astound at its wonderful song, and it made my day. The only thing that makes me unsure is if the singing bird was a blackbird or a robin?
Note:
The poem I am talking about is: Ein Stündlein wohl vor Tag by Eduard Mörike