The Song of the Woodlands | Where is Creativity?
#reflections | Part II
17th June 2025
Quite early into the morning today, at around five am, I was walking my way towards my bistro for my cuppa 😊 all the while listening to the lovely songs of the birds from the trees that lined up the streets on either sides.
Listening to the songs of these birds was indeed so pleasant to the ears – and makes us appreciate the inherent musicality in their songs! However, the noise and clamour of the city literally drowned the birds’ cute vocalizations.
Then I thought of contrasting it with the songs of the birds that I was listening to, deep in the forest, almost around the same time, quite early in the morning, just around a month ago!
The contrast in the dawn chorus was so striking!
Call it the “Lombard effect,” wherein urban birds tend to sing louder to overcome the background noise and clatter of the city.
Catchpole and Slater in their exciting book on the subject titled, Bird Song: Biological Themes and Variations, observe that –
Birds with territories in noisy parts of the city sang more loudly than those elsewhere. Under normal circumstances they might therefore not be singing at full volume. This raising of the amplitude of vocalisations in noisy conditions is known as the Lombard effect. (101)
In sharp contrast, the acoustic environment of the forest is so arresting! Rather mesmerizing and therapeutic to the soul!
Call it the Acoustic Adaptation Hypothesis, wherein the acoustic signals (like calls, songs, or other vocalizations) produced by animals are tuned to maximize their transmission efficiency!
It is said that, urban birds might alter the structure of their songs, by having shorter songs or fewer pauses, for better audibility and reception!
On the contrary, forest birds often exhibit more complex and varied song structures, as they are not under any sort of pressure to alter the structure of their songs!
In this regard, I would like to quote from one of my favourite poems.
Indeed, one of the best poems that has laid a claim to my heart, is Tagore’s “The Tame Bird was in a Cage”.
An awesome poem with such mystical undertones.
There is a tame bird who lives in a cage. It represents a state of being that is so accustomed to comfort and security, possibly at the expense of true freedom.
Tagore juxtaposes this bird with the free, wild bird, flying freely in the sky, singing of the “forest,” “the open sky”, and the boundless expanse of the sky! It embodies absolute freedom, independence, and a connection to the vastness of nature.
Now, the wild bird flies near the cage and calls out to the tame bird. It asks the tame bird to come out into the open sky, inviting it to share its freedom.
However, the tame bird, that seems quite ‘contended with its comfort’, in turn, invites the wild bird into its cage, offering it the “grains of food” given by its master - symbols of comfort and security.
Despite their apparent affection or desire for connection, there seems to be an unbridgeable divide between them. The “love” between them, as the poem states, “is a sigh in the void.”
Although both try to talk it out, their words and worlds are highly incompatible!
The free bird cries, “O my love, let us fly to the woods.”
The cage bird whispers, “Come hither, let us both live in the cage.”
Says the free bird, “Among
bars, where is there room to spread one’s wings?”
“Alas,” cries the caged
bird, “I should not know where to sit perched in the sky.”
The free bird cries, “My darling, sing the songs of the woodlands.”
The cage bird sings, “Sit
by my side, I'll teach you the speech of the learned.”
The forest bird cries,
“No, ah no! songs can never be taught.”
The cage bird says, “Alas
for me, I know not the songs of the woodlands.”
In essence, Tagore beautifully foregrounds the stark contrast between the free bird - representing true freedom, and attaining one’s true aspirations and ideals in life, and the tame bird in the cage - representing material attachments, worldly comforts, and being constrained by the conformities of life.
In this regard, it would be apt to quote from Freud’s Civilisation and its Discontents, to see the compelling connection between the two texts.
To Freud, like with Tagore, civilization, while necessary for human survival and cooperation is achieved by repressing and sublimating one’s primal instincts, which leads to a constant and sustained feeling of “discontent” or “unease” in the individual.
Although Tagore’s approach is more mystical and philosophical, and Freud’s take is psychoanalytic, both writers seek to foreground a ubiquitous human dilemma: the great conflict within an individual – the realities of being constrained by conformities, and the ideal of living a life of unfettered freedom!
And this state of unfettered freedom is the state of creativity, which can be achieved only when one is in harmony with nature, says Osho.
Now, over to the video -
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