A Tree with a Bird in It:a Symposium of Contemporary American Poets on Being Shown a Pear-Tree on Which Sat a Grackle

What happens when thirty-five of America's most celebrated poets are shown the same simple thing, a pear tree with a grackle perched on its branch, and asked to write about it? This whimsical 1919 anthology assembles Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, Carl Sandburg, and dozens of their contemporaries for a delightful literary experiment. Each poet approaches the same humble subject through entirely different lenses: some turn lyrically philosophical, others dive into absurdity, and some clearly cannot resist poking gentle fun at the entire enterprise of poetic interpretation. The titles alone reveal the game, Frost offers "The Bird Misunderstood," Wylie contributes "The Grackle Is the Loon," and the collection itself is called "The Symposium Leading Nowhere." The result is both a time capsule of American poetic voices at a pivotal moment and a clever meditation on how the same reality yields infinite meanings depending on who is looking. Widdemer, herself a prolific poet of the era, corrals this roving flock of literary giants into a volume that rewards both serious attention and mischievous appreciation.