A Fool's Song

A Fool's Song
By William Carlos Williams

I tried to put a bird in a cage.
        O fool that I am!
    For the bird was Truth.
Sing merrily, Truth: I tried to put
        Truth in a cage!

And when I had the bird in the cage,
        O fool that I am!
    Why, it broke my pretty cage.
Sing merrily, Truth: I tried to put
        Truth in a cage!

And when the bird was flown from the cage,
        O fool that I am!
    Why, I had nor bird nor cage.
Sing merrily, Truth: I tried to put
        Truth in a cage!
    Heigh-ho! Truth in a cage.

An Interpretation of “A Fool’s Song”
By Caroline

My poem “A Fool’s Song” consists of sixteen lines and three stanzas.  This poem has no rhyme scheme.  The point of view of this poem is first person.  This poem’s setting is a room with a person and a bird cage.

 The speaker of the poem is a person who is trying to hide the truth.  The person that has the truth/secret is having a hard time hiding the truth.  The truth/secret keeps on escaping.  But, the person finally hides the truth/secret after many tries. 

In each stanza the fourth line has no punctuation in.  The fourth line does not have punctuation because Williams says “I tried to put” (Williams, ln. 4).   Each fourth line says that.  After each fourth line in all of the stanzas the next lines say, “Truth in a cage” (Williams, ln. 5)!  This makes a full sentence of “I tried to put truth in a cage.”  When Williams says, “I tried to put a bird in a cage” (Williams, ln. 1) Williams means that the bird is the truth/ a secret and the cage that he is trying to put it in means that he is trying to hide the truth/ a secret. 

            My interpretation of this poem is that a person has a deep, dark secret or a truth that they are trying to hide.  The truth/ secret keeps escaping and spreads to people.  The person that has the secret doesn’t want anyone to know so they try to hide it.  After many tries of trying to put the truth back in the cage/ trying to hide it the person finally achieves their goal and hides the truth.

            Another interpretation to this story is that the speaker cheated on a test.  The speaker keeps on peeking on the test next to them.  Each time they go to look at their neighbor’s test the teacher catches them cheating.  Finally the speaker comes up with a good technique to cheat and the teacher doesn’t catch them cheating.  When they get their test back they got a 100%. That means that their goal of cheating is finally achieved.  They have successfully cheated.  When the bird is finally hidden the persons cheating habit is finally hidden.  They can use that technique whenever they want and not get told on.

            The bird is a metaphor for a deep dark secret or a truth.  The cage is a metaphor to the person trying to hide the truth/ secret.  Each time the bird escapes it is a metaphor to the truth escaping and spreading to people.  When the bird is finally kept in the cage the metaphor is that the truth is finally hidden. 

            When Williams writes, “Why, it broke my pretty cage” (Williams, ln. 8) the truth had escaped and the cover was broken.  When the poet, Williams, says, “Heigh-ho!  Truth in a cage” (Williams, ln. 16) it means that he is very happy that the truth is hidden and that he doesn’t plan on the truth or secret getting out again.  “And when the bird was flown from the cage” (Williams, ln. 11) means that the truth or secret had escaped and that the truth was being spread around everywhere.

            The poem ends by finally saying that the truth is hidden.  When Williams says that it is hidden/kept control of it means that the truth will not escape again.  It is finally hidden forever.  It is a nice way to end the poem because the poem is about the truth/secret escaping a lot.  But, when the speaker finally hides the truth it is a relief.   It is a relief because the speaker finally keeps the truth from escaping.  The speaker doesn’t have to worry about the truth/speaker escaping.