Birds-Writting Prompt

The awe-inspiring features of the world are seen throughout nature. Among these incredible characteristics are birds. Birds migrate in amazing numbers. Birdwatchers delight at the opportunity to see birds migrate. John James Audubon and Annie Dillard are two writers who were able to witness the flight of the birds. They each described the flights differently, though. John James Audubon has a pragmatic view and Annie Dillard uses diction in describing both the birds and conveying the effect the birds have on them as observers.

Audubon's view in describing the birds is pragmatic while Dillard's descriptions use diction. Audubon looks at the birds practically. "163 had been made in twenty-one minutes." He writes an exact number, making the number of birds practical. Dillard, in contrast, uses similes. "They gathered deep in the distance, flocks shifting into flock, and strayed towards me, transparent and whirling, like smoke... The extended like a fluttering banner, an unfurled oriflamme, in either direction, as far as I could see." The exact number is not known, but we are able to discern that there are many birds in he sky. Audubon writes, "I saw, at my leisure, immense legions still going by, with a front reaching far beyond the Ohio on the west, and the beech-wood forests directly on the east of me." He tells us his exact location. Dillard, on the other hand, says the birds extended as far as she could see. They both use similes in describing the noises the birds make. "Like a torrent, and with a noise like thunder," pens Audubon. The birds were loud, like thunder. "I heard a sound of beaten air, like a million shook rugs," records Dillard. We can almost hear the birds when she describes them. We are, like the two writers, filled with wonder.

Both, Audubon and Dillard saw magnificence in the soaring of the birds. It left Audubon speechless, "I cannot describe to you the

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