---
title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: And my Black bird, still not quitting…"
description: "\"“And my Black bird, still not quitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On that pallid bust -- still flitting through my dolorous domain; But it can..."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/454/gilbert-adair-41262_poetry_and-my-black-bird-still-not-quitting-sti_213432.png"
---

#  And my Black bird, still not quitting, still is sitting…

![“And my Black bird, still not quitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On that pallid bust -- still flitting through my dolorous domain; But it cannot stop from gazing for it truly finds amazing That, by artful paraphrasing, I such rhyming can sustain-- Notwithstanding my lost symbol I such…” quote by Gilbert Adair](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/454/gilbert-adair-41262_poetry_and-my-black-bird-still-not-quitting-sti_213432.png)   [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/454/gilbert-adair-41262_poetry_and-my-black-bird-still-not-quitting-sti_213432.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/454/gilbert-adair-41262_poetry_and-my-black-bird-still-not-quitting-sti_213432.png)

> ““And my Black bird, still not quitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On that pallid bust -- still flitting through my dolorous domain; But it cannot stop from gazing for it truly finds amazing That, by artful paraphrasing, I such rhyming can sustain-- Notwithstanding my lost symbol I such rhyming still sustain-- Though I shan't try it again!””

[Gilbert Adair](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-adair/)

## About This Quote

This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.

A persistent, melancholic bird symbolizes creative struggle and the sustaining power of rhyme despite loss.

**In simple terms:** Creative struggle persists through art.

Key Takeaway

Embrace artistic perseverance.

Themes

creativity perseverance loss artistic expression

Mood

melancholic determined

Type

poetic inspirational

When to use this quote

- writing poetry
- overcoming creative block
- expressing grief
- maintaining inspiration

Key Concepts

symbolism poetic resilience

Questions to Reflect On

- How does rhyme help you process sorrow?
- What symbols sustain your creative drive?

A Different Perspective

Art may not fully heal personal loss.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★   No ratings yet

[Artful Paraphrasing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/artful-paraphrasing-2197492/) [Paraphrasing Rhyming](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/paraphrasing-rhyming-2197490/) [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Rhyming](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rhyming/) [Rhyming Sustain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rhyming-sustain-2197489/) [Symbol Rhyming](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/symbol-rhyming-2197491/)

## Related quotes

> [I've been writing songs since I was 10 years old and always had a penchant for rhyming. I started listening to hip hop through…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hoodie-allen/i-ve-been-writing-songs-since-i-was-10-years-old-and-always-had-a/)

[Hoodie Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hoodie-allen/)

> [“Kat held her head high as she met the King's eye. Her stare was bold, yet sweet, and it would not die. Gansevort looked…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-z-bingham/kat-held-her-head-high-as-she-met-the-king-s-eye-her-stare-was-bold/)

[J.Z. Bingham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-z-bingham/)

> [Versification is, indeed, indispensable for music, but rhyme, solely for rhyming's sake, most pernicious.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wolfgang-amadeus-mozart/versification-is-indeed-indispensable-for-music-but-rhyme-solely-for/)

[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wolfgang-amadeus-mozart/)

> [Then one can't make a living out of poetry? Certainly not. What fool expects to? Out of rhyming, yes.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jack-london/then-one-can-t-make-a-living-out-of-poetry-certainly-not-what-fool/)

[Jack London](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jack-london/)

> [Back in the day, rappers were 'bump bump bump ba bump ba bump.' They was rhyming like that, but I was like, 'bababa bump…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rakim/back-in-the-day-rappers-were-bump-bump-bump-ba-bump-ba-bump-they-was/)

[Rakim](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rakim/)

> [My parents were hippies, and the story is that they went through a dictionary looking for a beautiful word to name me. They nearly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/china-mi-ville/my-parents-were-hippies-and-the-story-is-that-they-went-through-a/)

[China Mieville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/china-mi-ville/)

> [Shakespeare wrote his sonnets within a strict discipline, fourteen lines of iambic pentameter, rhyming in three quatrains and a couplet. Were his sonnets dull?…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-ogilvy/shakespeare-wrote-his-sonnets-within-a-strict-discipline-fourteen/)

[David Ogilvy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-ogilvy/)

> [Criticism occupies the lowest place in the literary hierarchy: as regards form, almost always; and as regards moral value, incontestably. It comes after rhyming…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gustave-flaubert/criticism-occupies-the-lowest-place-in-the-literary-hierarchy-as/)

[Gustave Flaubert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gustave-flaubert/)

> [Lyrics are very different. There is a clear line between that and a poem. Something that has been a source of great excitement and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joanna-newsom/lyrics-are-very-different-there-is-a-clear-line-between-that-and-a/)

[Joanna Newsom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joanna-newsom/)

> [Well Ive been rhyming since I was 5 years old and I kinda stopped when I was 10. Then this summer I got back…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diggy-simmons/well-ive-been-rhyming-since-i-was-5-years-old-and-i-kinda-stopped/)

[Diggy Simmons](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diggy-simmons/)

> [If you play jazz, then you play with your fingers. If you're playing rock, you use a pick. There's really no rhyme or reason…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-eubanks/if-you-play-jazz-then-you-play-with-your-fingers-if-you-re-playing/)

[Kevin Eubanks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kevin-eubanks/)

> [A certain administration which I won't call by name took the arts out of the schools, and that left the brothers out on the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isaac-hayes/a-certain-administration-which-i-won-t-call-by-name-took-the-arts-out/)

[Isaac Hayes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isaac-hayes/)

> [When people in stadiums do the Wave, it's the group-mind collective organism spontaneously organizing itself to express an emotion, pass time, and reflect the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jerry-saltz/when-people-in-stadiums-do-the-wave-it-s-the-group-mind-collective/)

[Jerry Saltz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jerry-saltz/)

> [Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts and happenings. It consists mainly ofthe storm of thought that is forever flowing through…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/life-does-not-consist-mainly-or-even-largely-of-facts-and-happenings/)

[Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/)

> [No thesaurus can give you those words, no rhyming dictionary. They must happen out of you.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dorothy-fields/no-thesaurus-can-give-you-those-words-no-rhyming-dictionary-they-must/)

[Dorothy Fields](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dorothy-fields/)

## More by Gilbert Adair

> [“My little Matthew, Isabelle at once snapped back at him, when two people agree, it means one of them is redundant”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-adair/my-little-matthew-isabelle-at-once-snapped-back-at-him-when-two/)

[Gilbert Adair](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-adair/)

> [All isms end in fascism.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-adair/all-isms-end-in-fascism/)

[Gilbert Adair](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-adair/)

> [The earth is mankind's ultimate haven, our blessed terra firma. When it trembles and gives way beneath our feet, it's as though one of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-adair/the-earth-is-mankind-s-ultimate-haven-our-blessed-terra-firma-when-it/)

[Gilbert Adair](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-adair/)

> [Postmodernism is, almost by definition, a transitional cusp of social, cultural, economic and ideological history when modernism's high-minded principles and preoccupationshave ceased to function,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-adair/postmodernism-is-almost-by-definition-a-transitional-cusp-of-social/)

[Gilbert Adair](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-adair/)

> [“You read Salinger in Italian? Molto chic’ ‘I was told a good way to learn a language was to read translations of books you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-adair/you-read-salinger-in-italian-molto-chic-i-was-told-a-good-way-to/)

[Gilbert Adair](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-adair/)

> [We "need" cancer because, by the very fact of its incurability, it makes all other diseases, however virulent, not cancer.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-adair/we-need-cancer-because-by-the-very-fact-of-its-incurability-it-makes/)

[Gilbert Adair](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-adair/)

> [The only tastes worth having are acquired tastes.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-adair/the-only-tastes-worth-having-are-acquired-tastes/)

[Gilbert Adair](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-adair/)

> [There is fire and fire: The fire that burns and the fire that gives warmth, a fire that sets a forest ablaze and the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-adair/there-is-fire-and-fire-the-fire-that-burns-and-the-fire-that-gives/)

[Gilbert Adair](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-adair/)

> [In New York -- whose subway trains in particular have been ''tattooed'' with an energy to put our own rude practitioners to shame --…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-adair/in-new-york-whose-subway-trains-in-particular-have-been-tattooed-with-2/)

[Gilbert Adair](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-adair/)

[Explore all 10 Gilbert Adair quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-adair/)

## More Poetry quotes

> [I fell in love with social work, and that was my undoing as a poet.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-rakosi/i-fell-in-love-with-social-work-and-that-was-my-undoing-as-a-poet/)

[Carl Rakosi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-rakosi/)

> [The name Phenomenal Woman was inspired by Maya Angelo, who wrote 'Phenomenal Woman', a favorite poem of mine.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/meena-harris/the-name-phenomenal-woman-was-inspired-by-maya-angelo-who-wrote/)

[Meena Harris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/meena-harris/)

> [A poet is wounded into speech, and he examines these wounds, meticulously, to discover how to heal them. The bad poet harangues at the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-r-delany/a-poet-is-wounded-into-speech-and-he-examines-these-wounds/)

[Samuel R. Delany](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-r-delany/)

> [“Time gives poetry to a battlefield...”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/graham-greene/time-gives-poetry-to-a-battlefield/)

[Graham Greene](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/graham-greene/)

> [The poetry from the eighteenth century was prose; the prose from the seventeenth century was poetry.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-hare/the-poetry-from-the-eighteenth-century-was-prose-the-prose-from-the/)

[David Hare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-hare/)

> [“It took me years to learn to sit at my desk for more than two minutes at a time, to put up with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erica-jong/it-took-me-years-to-learn-to-sit-at-my-desk-for-more-than-two-minutes/)

[Erica Jong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erica-jong/)

> [The word 'mundane' has come to mean 'boring' and 'dull', and it really shouldn't - it should mean the opposite. Because it comes from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/the-word-mundane-has-come-to-mean-boring-and-dull-and-it-really/)

[Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/)

> [“In the streets, the children scream, the lovers cried, and the poets dreamed,” he crooned, putting down the metal grill tongs to take my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexandria-clarke/in-the-streets-the-children-scream-the-lovers-cried-and-the-poets/)

[Alexandria Clarke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexandria-clarke/)

> [Some minds corrode and grow inactive under the loss of personal liberty; others grow morbid and irritable; but it is the nature of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/washington-irving/some-minds-corrode-and-grow-inactive-under-the-loss-of-personal/)

[Washington Irving](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/washington-irving/)

> [You don’t read or overhear the voice in the poem, you are the voice in the poem.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/helen-vendler/you-don-t-read-or-overhear-the-voice-in-the-poem-you-are-the-voice-in/)

[Helen Vendler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/helen-vendler/)

> [All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/all-lyrical-work-must-as-a-whole-be-perfectly-intelligible-but-in/)

[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/)

> [The world's history is a divine poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and every man a word. Its strains…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-a-garfield/the-world-s-history-is-a-divine-poem-of-which-the-history-of-every/)

[James A. Garfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-a-garfield/)

> [I was interested in all kinds of things, whether it be Avatar, Mad Men, Troy, 300, Battlestar Gallactica, or the poems of Horace and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-mendelsohn/i-was-interested-in-all-kinds-of-things-whether-it-be-avatar-mad-men/)

[Daniel Mendelsohn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-mendelsohn/)

> [“I promise to respect and protect your aloneness, knowing that everything created must have its period of darkness: child and bulb, poem and personality.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-morrow-lindbergh/i-promise-to-respect-and-protect-your-aloneness-knowing-that/)

[anne morrow lindbergh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-morrow-lindbergh/)

> [“Things are more like they are now...than they have EVER been before!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/uncle-arnie-mamath/things-are-more-like-they-are-now-than-they-have-ever-been-before/)

[Uncle Arnie Mamath](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/uncle-arnie-mamath/)

[Browse all 21,625 Poetry quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "Quotation",
            "text": "“And my Black bird, still not quitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On that pallid bust -- still flitting through my dolorous domain; But it cannot stop from gazing for it truly finds amazing That, by artful paraphrasing, I such rhyming can sustain-- Notwithstanding my lost symbol I such rhyming still sustain-- Though I shan't try it again!”",
            "creator": {
                "@type": "Person",
                "name": "Gilbert Adair"
            },
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-adair/and-my-black-bird-still-not-quitting-still-is-sitting-still-is/",
            "about": {
                "@type": "Thing",
                "name": "Poetry"
            },
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-adair/and-my-black-bird-still-not-quitting-still-is-sitting-still-is/#quotation",
            "image": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/454/gilbert-adair-41262_poetry_and-my-black-bird-still-not-quitting-sti_213432.png",
                "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/454/gilbert-adair-41262_poetry_and-my-black-bird-still-not-quitting-sti_213432.png",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/454/gilbert-adair-41262_poetry_and-my-black-bird-still-not-quitting-sti_213432.png",
                "width": 1080,
                "height": 1080,
                "caption": "“And my Black bird, still not quitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On that pallid bust -- still…” — Gilbert Adair",
                "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                "creator": {
                    "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "Gilbert Adair",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-adair/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "“And my Black bird, still not...",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-adair/and-my-black-bird-still-not-quitting-still-is-sitting-still-is/"
                }
            ],
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-adair/and-my-black-bird-still-not-quitting-still-is-sitting-still-is/#breadcrumb"
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```
