To a Pair Of Sarus Cranes

She flies away crying

The poem states 'She flew crying' immediately after describing the male being shot. This reaction shows her immediate grief and shock at witnessing her mate's death. The word 'crying' indicates her emotional distress and mourning. Flying away is a natural response to danger, but her return later shows this was not permanent escape but a momentary response to trauma. The poet captures the bird's natural instinct to flee from danger while also showing her emotional attachment through the word 'crying.' The other options are not mentioned in the poem.

She circles the sky in movements of grace

After the killers leave, the female crane returns and 'circled the sky in movements of grace over his disgraceful end.' This behavior shows her continued devotion and mourning. The contrast between her 'movements of grace' and his 'disgraceful end' highlights the dignity she maintains even in grief versus the undignified way her mate was killed and left. Her circling motion is both a natural bird behavior and a symbolic representation of her being caught in a cycle of grief, unable to move away from the scene of tragedy. The graceful movements also show that even in sorrow, she retains her nat

The dots and pits of the female crane's grief

The poem describes the female crane's grief as being 'inscribed its intensity in dots and pits like the Morse code of bird's sorrow transmitted to the air.' The 'dots and pits' refer to the varying sounds of her cries - short and long calls that express her grief. Morse code uses short and long signals (dots and dashes) to communicate messages. The poet creates a beautiful metaphor comparing the bird's varied cries of sorrow to Morse code, suggesting that her grief is so intense it's like a coded message of sorrow being transmitted through the air. This shows how deeply she is communicating he

She tries to hatch them like eggs

The poem describes how the female crane 'picked the ones that wind had not taken away and sat to hatch the blood stained feathers into a toddling chick.' This is a deeply moving image of her psychological state. In her grief and denial, she attempts to hatch the bloodstained feathers as if they were eggs, hoping to bring her mate back to life in the form of a chick. This behavior shows how grief can affect perception and create desperate hope for the impossible. The phrase 'toddling chick' emphasizes her delusion that she can somehow restore life from these remnants of death. This act represen