| Sumario: | The article analyzes Robert Frost’s poem “The Oven Bird,” focusing on the paradoxical line where the bird “knows in singing not to sing.” It argues that Frost employs the rhetorical figure antanaclasis, using the verb “to sing” in different senses: the bird sings musically but does not sing to celebrate, instead singing to state facts and pose questions about a diminished natural world. This distinguishes Frost’s oven bird from traditional poetic songbirds that sing only to celebrate, suggesting a modern poetic voice capable of lyrical expression without joyous celebration. The oven bird thus symbolizes a poet who continues to create meaningful poetry amid decline or loss, expanding the poetic register beyond celebration to include statement and inquiry.
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