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The engine is the source of energy to run machine. It is compared to bird as she is too a source of energy for her family. As without engine a machine can’t work in the same without a bird her family can’t survive.

The goldfinch’s movement is compared to that of a lizard. The basis of the comparison is the sleek, abrupt and alert movements of a lizard. The same kinds of movements are observed when the goldfinch arrives on the laburnum tree.

The phrase means that the bird’s barred or covered face becomes her identity mask recognition.

The last stanza of the poem seems to be the most poetic, which is: ‘It went to some forgotten place, That’s hidden in an infant’s face; That’s all I know.’  These lines sum up beautifully the process of growth and the disappearance of a particular stage of life. These lines express metaphorically that an infant’s innocent face hides many things behind its smiles. He seeks solace in the fact that the virtues of childhood are not permanently gone but perhaps it lies hidden somewhere in the child’s consciousness.  

when he asks the questions ‘When’ and ‘Where did my childhood go’? The poet feels that childhood is a period of innocence and simplicity, a time when one trusts other without asking for logic. He does not appear to feel sad or upset at the loss of his childhood. He only seems to be puzzled at the disappearance of childhood and the arrival of adulthood. He expresses his confusion

According to the poem, the process of growing up involves the attainment of mental maturity and loss of innocence and simplicity. A person is said to be grown up when he has become logical, rational and is able to build his own thoughts. A grown up has the power to distinguish between reality and fantasy.

A grown up individual understands the actions of others just as the poet recognized the hiatus between the preaching and the practice of the adults. He realizes the hypocrisy and the double standards maintained by the adults. A mature individual also asserts his thoughts and opinions.

1. I inquired from the soft-falling rain about its identity.

  2. The voice of the rain introduced itself as the Poem of Earth. 

 3. The voice of the rain explained its upward movement towards the sky as eternal.   

4. The poet says that, similar to the natural cycle of the rain, a song originates from the heart of the poet, travels to reach others and after fulfilling its purpose (whether acknowledged or not), it returns to the poet with all due love.

Individuality- Third stanza Rationalism- First stanza

Hypocrisy- Second stanza