...But through the crevice where it came That bird was perch'd, as fond and tame, And tamer than upon the tree; A lovely bird, with azure wings, And song that said a thousand things, 270 And seem'd to say them all for me! I never saw its like before, I ne'er shall see its likeness...

...achieve self-consciousness through reflection on one's identification with an external object: "It seem'd like me to want a mate, / But was not half so desolate" (273-274). The prisoner interprets the bird entirely in terms of his own concerns; it had a "song that...