The speaker starts out completely tied to the natural world: sunshine lifts her, clouds ruin her day, trees feel like part of her body. But that closeness becomes painful—wind and sea make her suffer through every change. So she decides to build an inner refuge. She imagines growing a willow from her own heart’s strength and shaping a bird from her own heart’s fire. These are not real plants or animals; they stand for a private emotional life that outside forces cannot wreck. After that, she dares the wind to blow as hard as it likes, with sleet, snow, or silence. She insists that wherever she goes, her bird and willow go with her, so her song stays steady. The mood moves from fragile and storm-tossed to bold and calm. It feels like a declaration of independence from outside moods.
First Miracle — Summary
There was a time when Mother Nature made My soul's sun, and my soul's shade. A cloud in the sky could take away The song in my heart for all day, And a little lark in a willow-tree Would mean happiness to me. My moods would mirror all her whims ; Trees were my strength : their limbs, my limbs. But, oh, my mother tortured me, Blowing with wind, and sighing with sea. I flamed, I withered, I blossomed, I sang, With her I suffered pang for pang,
Until I said: "I will grow my own tree Where no natural wind will bother me." And I grew me a willow of my own heart's strength, With my will for its width, and my wish for its length : And I made me a bird of my own heart's fire, To sing my own sun, and my own desire.
And a vast white circle came in the air, And the winds around said, "Don't blow there." I said, "Blow on — blow, blow, blow, blow, Fill all the sky, above, below, With tempest, and sleet, and silence, and snow !
"Wherever I go, no matter where, My bird and my willow-tree are there. "However you frown, no matter how, I will sing as I am singing now."