I Ching Hexagram 62: Small Preponderance - Meaning, Changing Lines and Guidance

I Ching Hexagram 62, Small Preponderance (Xiao Guo), is the reading for a time when small things outweigh great ones, formed by Zhen the thunder above Gen the mountain. Its Judgement permits small undertakings, forbids great ones, and promises great good fortune to the questioner who comes down rather than strives upward. This guide covers its trigrams, Judgement and Image, all six changing lines, its nuclear and opposite hexagrams, and how it reads for decisions and work.

What does I Ching Hexagram 62, Small Preponderance, mean?

I Ching Hexagram 62, Small Preponderance, means that small things have grown larger than great things, and that success now belongs to modest careful acts rather than ambitious ones. The Chinese name is Xiao Guo: xiao is small, and guo means to pass by, to cross over, to exceed, and by extension to overstep or to err. Both senses live in the reading. Something small is passing over something large, and the danger is the overstep. Richard Wilhelm's German translation, brought into English by Cary F. Baynes, gives the name as Preponderance of the Small; other English versions use Small Exceeding or Small Traverses. Structurally the hexagram is four yielding lines wrapped around two firm ones. Counting from the bottom, the lines run yin, yin, yang, yang, yin, yin. The strong lines are boxed into the third and fourth places at the center of the figure, while the weak lines hold both ends. In a system that names a hexagram for what dominates it, the weak dominate here by four to two, and they dominate at the entrance and the exit, which is where influence gets exercised. Hexagram 62 is therefore a picture of a period when small forces set the terms and strength has to work inside them.

The traditional picture drawn from that arrangement is a bird in flight: the two solid lines at the center are the body, the four broken lines above and below are the outspread wings. The wings are bigger than the bird. That is the exact problem Hexagram 62 describes, and it is why the Judgement tells the bird to come down rather than climb. A creature whose extremities outweigh its core can glide, hover, and land, but it cannot beat its way up into a storm. Read as timing rather than as a fixed verdict, Small Preponderance describes an interval when capacity is genuinely real and genuinely limited. Nothing here says the questioner is weak or in the wrong. It says the scale of what can be carried right now is small, and that trying to carry more brings the fall the top line describes. Practitioners often summarize Hexagram 62 as the reading for a transitional stretch, the gap in which the old structure has loosened and the new one has not formed. Its position in the King Wen sequence puts it exactly there, between Hexagram 61, Inner Truth, and Hexagram 63, After Completion.

Is I Ching Hexagram 62 a lucky or an unlucky hexagram?

I Ching Hexagram 62 is favorable within limits. Its Judgement opens with success and perseverance furthers, then restricts the scope: small things may be done, great things should not be done. Hexagram 62 promises good fortune to a questioner who scales the plan down and misfortune to one who scales it up.

What does the Chinese name of Hexagram 62 translate to?

The Chinese name of Hexagram 62 is Xiao Guo. Xiao means small or minor, and guo means to pass, to exceed, and also a fault. Together they describe the small passing beyond its bounds, which English versions render as Preponderance of the Small, Small Exceeding, or Small Traverses.

What is the line structure of Hexagram 62?

Hexagram 62 runs, from the bottom line upward, yin, yin, yang, yang, yin, yin. Broken lines occupy the first, second, fifth, and sixth places; solid lines occupy the third and fourth. The two firm lines sit together at the center with no firm support at either end, which is why commentary reads them as a small body under oversized wings.

Which two trigrams form Hexagram 62 and why do they produce Small Preponderance?

Hexagram 62 is formed by Gen, the mountain, in the lower position and Zhen, the thunder, in the upper position, giving the image of thunder above the mountain. Gen means keeping still: stillness, the stopping place, the boundary that does not move, and in the family scheme of the trigrams it is the youngest son. Zhen means the arousing: shock, sudden movement, the crack that starts things, and it is the eldest son. Put motion on top of stillness and the motion has nowhere to travel downward, because the base beneath it will not shift. The specific reason this pairing produces smallness rather than power is a matter of position. Thunder rolling across a plain is heard for a great distance. Thunder that breaks on a mountain summit is already high up, close to the sky, and its sound does not carry the same way. It is enormous where it happens and minor everywhere else. The trigram pairing therefore encodes a disproportion between noise and reach. Something is happening with real energy in a confined place. Hexagram 62 is the reading for that condition: activity that is genuine but local, an event that feels overwhelming to the person inside it and registers as small to anyone standing further off.

The two trigrams also explain why Hexagram 62 counsels restraint instead of retreat. Gen below is not paralysis; the mountain is a stopping place with a shape, a defined edge, a limit that can be worked with. Zhen above is not chaos; thunder is a brief announcement, not a campaign. What the pair rules out is sustained expanding motion, since there is no water to carry it and no heaven above to give it scope. What the pair rules in is short, decisive, contained action. That is the practical form of the advice attached to Hexagram 62 across commentary traditions: act, but act briefly, and act where your feet are already planted. The pairing also explains why Hexagram 62 turns up so often around ceremony, correction, and detail work. Gen governs thresholds and gates, Zhen governs the instant a thing begins, and together they describe the small formal act that marks a boundary. The apology made properly. The account settled to the cent. The handover documented. None of those enlarges anyone's position, and all of them hold a boundary in place, which is what the mountain does.

What does thunder over mountain mean in I Ching Hexagram 62?

Thunder over mountain in I Ching Hexagram 62 means loud activity in a confined place. Thunder is already high when it breaks over a summit, so its sound does not carry as far as thunder over open ground. The image tells the questioner that events are intense at close range and minor at a distance.

What do the trigrams Gen and Zhen contribute to Hexagram 62?

In Hexagram 62, Gen the mountain contributes stillness, limit, and a base that will not be moved, while Zhen the thunder contributes shock, initiative, and the burst that starts something. Gen sits below and sets the boundary, Zhen sits above and supplies the motion. The result is energy with a ceiling on it.

Which hexagram reverses the trigrams of Hexagram 62?

Placing Gen the mountain above Zhen the thunder, the reverse of Hexagram 62, gives Hexagram 27, the Corners of the Mouth, which concerns nourishment. With the mountain on top the jaw holds still and the reading is about intake; with thunder on top in Hexagram 62 the movement faces outward.

What does the Judgement of Hexagram 62 say and how is it read?

The Judgement of Hexagram 62 reads, in the Wilhelm and Baynes version: Preponderance of the Small. Success. Perseverance furthers. Small things may be done; great things should not be done. The flying bird brings the message: It is not well to strive upward, it is well to remain below. Great good fortune. Four separate instructions are packed into that. The first is that success is available, so this is not a hexagram of failure. The second is that success is conditional on perseverance, meaning steady correct conduct rather than one clever move. The third is the size rule: the small may be undertaken, the great may not. The fourth is the direction rule, delivered by the bird, that the motion should be downward and inward rather than upward and outward. The closing phrase, great good fortune, is attached to the descent and not to the ambition. A reader who obeys the size rule and the direction rule is promised the strongest outcome Hexagram 62 contains. That is the pivot most people miss. Small Preponderance does not hand out a consolation prize for staying small. It offers the best result the situation holds, and it says plainly that the best result is reached by going down rather than up.

The flying bird is worth sitting with, because the Judgement gives it a voice: the bird brings a message, or in other renderings leaves its call behind. A bird that keeps climbing loses the ground, exhausts itself, and belongs to the wind; a bird that settles finds the food and the nest. Applied to a question, the bird sets a test anyone can run. Does the course of action increase exposure, altitude, and the number of people watching? Then Hexagram 62 counsels against it. Does it reduce exposure and put the questioner back in contact with ordinary concrete work? Then Hexagram 62 supports it, and supports it strongly. The word success in the opening line deserves the same care. In the Judgement formulas of the Book of Changes that term marks an open channel, not a prize already won, and Hexagram 62 says the channel is open at the small scale. Fill it with maintenance, exact accounts, the visit made and the repair completed, and the reading pays out. Fill it with a launch, an expansion, a confrontation, or a bid for a larger role, and the promise is withdrawn, which the first and sixth lines then spell out as misfortune.

What does small things may be done, great things should not be done mean in Hexagram 62?

In Hexagram 62 that phrase sets a size limit on action rather than banning action. Small things means work whose failure would be recoverable and whose scope the questioner already controls. Great things means anything committing the questioner to a larger position: launching, expanding, confronting a superior, or taking a role that has not been earned.

What is the flying bird in the Judgement of Hexagram 62?

The flying bird in the Judgement of Hexagram 62 is the hexagram's own shape read as a picture, two solid lines for the body and four broken lines for the outstretched wings. Its message is that it is not well to strive upward and well to remain below, so the bird stands for any effort whose reach has outgrown its core.

Why does Hexagram 62 promise great good fortune?

Hexagram 62 promises great good fortune because its Judgement attaches that phrase to remaining below, not to ambition. A chosen descent is the fully correct response to a time when the small predominates, and correct response earns the strongest verdict available. The good fortune is contingent on accepting the smaller scale.

What does the Image of Hexagram 62 teach about conduct?

The Image of Hexagram 62 reads: Thunder on the mountain: the image of Preponderance of the Small. Thus in his conduct the superior man gives preponderance to reverence. In bereavement he gives preponderance to grief. In his expenditures he gives preponderance to thrift. Where the Judgement handles scale, the Image handles character, and it does so through three named situations. In ordinary conduct, err toward respect: bow a little lower than required, arrive earlier than needed, treat the junior person with the courtesy owed to a senior. In mourning, err toward grief rather than composure, letting the loss be felt and shown rather than managed. In spending, err toward thrift, keeping the outlay under what the occasion would permit. The pattern is consistent. Hexagram 62 does not counsel a middle path here; it counsels a deliberate lean toward the humbler side of every choice. That is what preponderance of the small looks like as behavior. A small excess in the direction of reverence, sorrow, and frugality is the safe form of exceeding, because none of those overshoots can injure anyone. Excess in the direction of confidence, display, or expenditure is the unsafe form, and the changing lines of Hexagram 62 punish it.

The three examples in the Image of Hexagram 62 are not arbitrary. Each names a domain where a person is tempted to appear larger than the moment warrants. Conduct is where one is tempted to stand on rank. Bereavement is where one is tempted to hold the face steady and get through the week. Expenditure is where one spends at the level of the image being projected rather than the level of the purse. Hexagram 62 tilts the same way in all three: downward, toward the quieter, cheaper option. Read against the trigrams, this is the mountain instructing the thunder. Gen holds the boundary, so the burst of Zhen above comes out as ritual correctness instead of force. Practitioners who use Hexagram 62 in daily readings often treat the Image as its most usable part, because it converts an abstract warning about scale into behavior a person can perform before dinner. Answer the message you have been avoiding, with more courtesy than the sender used. Cancel the expense that exists to signal something. Each is a small act that holds a boundary, which is what this hexagram rewards.

Why does the Image of Hexagram 62 mention mourning?

The Image of Hexagram 62 mentions mourning because bereavement is where people characteristically understate what they feel. Giving preponderance to grief means leaning past composure into real sorrow. In this hexagram, overshooting toward feeling and humility is safe, while overshooting toward control and display is the error the changing lines warn against.

What does giving preponderance to reverence mean in Hexagram 62?

Giving preponderance to reverence in Hexagram 62 means erring toward respect in ordinary dealings: more courtesy than the situation requires, more punctuality, more acknowledgment of other people's standing. An excess of deference costs nothing, while an excess of assertion during a Small Preponderance period invites the strike from behind that the third line describes.

How does Hexagram 62 apply to spending and budgets?

Hexagram 62 applies to spending through its Image, which says to give preponderance to thrift. It favors trimming the outlay below what the occasion allows, delaying the large purchase, and settling small obligations exactly, and it reads against expansion budgets and expenditure meant to signal status.

What do the six changing lines of Hexagram 62 mean?

The six changing lines of Hexagram 62 form a single arc about altitude, and they reward the lines that stay low. Six at the beginning reads: The bird meets with misfortune through flying. Six in the second place reads: She passes by her ancestor and meets her ancestress. He does not reach his prince and meets the official. No blame. Nine in the third place reads: If one is not extremely careful, somebody may come up from behind and strike him. Misfortune. Nine in the fourth place reads: No blame. He meets him without passing by. Going brings danger. One must be on guard. Do not act. Be constantly persevering. Six in the fifth place reads: Dense clouds, no rain from our western territory. The prince shoots and hits him who is in the cave. Six at the top reads: He passes him by, not meeting him. The flying bird leaves him. Misfortune. This means calamity and injury. The two lines that carry misfortune without conditions are the first and the last, the two extremes of the figure. The two clean lines are the second and the fourth, both yielding in temperament and both content with a lower place than they could have claimed.

Taken one at a time, the changing lines of Hexagram 62 read as follows. The first line is a fledgling that takes off too soon; it has no strength beneath it and the hexagram already forbids upward motion, so the flight is punished. The second line is the model of the whole figure: it goes to the ancestress rather than the ancestor and to the official rather than the prince, approaching the person who is actually reachable instead of reaching over that person's head, and it draws no blame. The third line is firm in a firm place and ringed by yielding lines, which makes it overconfident; it assumes nothing weak can hurt it, drops its guard, and is struck from behind. The fourth line is firm in a yielding place, which forces restraint on it, and the text spells the restraint out: meet without going past, do not advance, stay on guard, persist. The fifth line is a yielding ruler in the ruling seat, so clouds gather and no rain falls, and its remedy is to shoot into the cave, meaning to draw out the capable person who is keeping out of sight. The top line has left the ground and the bird is gone.

Which changing line of Hexagram 62 is the most favorable?

Six in the second place is the most favorable changing line of Hexagram 62. It passes by the ancestor and meets the ancestress, fails to reach the prince and meets the official, and ends in no blame. Yielding, centrally placed, and satisfied with the contact it can actually reach, it models the hexagram's whole instruction.

Why is the third line of Hexagram 62 a warning?

Nine in the third place of Hexagram 62 warns that without extreme care somebody may come up from behind and strike, ending in misfortune. The line is a strong line among weak ones, which breeds the assumption that nothing weak poses a threat. During a Small Preponderance period the small is precisely what predominates.

What does dense clouds, no rain mean in the fifth line of Hexagram 62?

Dense clouds, no rain in the fifth line of Hexagram 62 describes conditions that have built up without releasing: influence gathered, nothing yet delivered. The same phrase opens Hexagram 9. Here the fifth line is too yielding to bring rain alone, so its remedy is to shoot into the cave and fetch the capable person in hiding.

What are the nuclear and opposite hexagrams of Hexagram 62?

The nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 62 is Hexagram 28, Preponderance of the Great, and the opposite hexagram, formed by changing every line, is Hexagram 61, Inner Truth. The nuclear figure is built from the inner lines: lines two, three, and four supply the lower trigram, lines three, four, and five supply the upper. In Hexagram 62 those give Xun the wind below and Dui the lake above, which is Hexagram 28, Da Guo. The relationship is exact and worth stating plainly: hidden inside Preponderance of the Small is Preponderance of the Great. The small crisis on the surface has a large one folded into its core, which is why the tradition treats Hexagram 62 as a warning rather than a mild note about scale. The opposite runs the other way. Hexagram 61, Inner Truth, sets wind above the lake and is the line-by-line complement of Hexagram 62; it is also the hexagram immediately before it in the King Wen sequence. Where Inner Truth concerns conviction that goes all the way through, Small Preponderance concerns the modest outward acts that conviction has to be spent on. Hexagram 62 is also one of the eight hexagrams that look identical when the whole figure is turned upside down.

The nuclear link between Hexagram 62 and Hexagram 28 changes how the reading feels in practice. Hexagram 28 is the ridgepole sagging under too much weight, an extraordinary and unsustainable condition. Finding it at the center of Hexagram 62 means the small excess on the surface is sitting on top of genuine structural strain. That is the mechanism behind the third line's blow from behind and the top line's calamity: the questioner treats the matter as minor because its outward form is minor, while the load underneath is not. Hexagram 61 fills in the other half. Read as a pair, 61 and 62 sort one problem into inner and outer. Inner Truth says that sincerity penetrates even the least receptive material. Small Preponderance says that sincerity now has to take the form of small correct acts performed on time and at the right scale, or it stays a private feeling. The self-inverting symmetry belongs to a short list that includes Hexagrams 1, 2, 27, 28, 29, 30, 61, and 62, so Hexagram 62 gains no second reading from being turned over. It looks the same from either end, which suits a hexagram whose only favorable direction is downward.

What is the nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 62 and why does it matter?

The nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 62 is Hexagram 28, Preponderance of the Great, built from Xun the wind below and Dui the lake above using lines two through five. It matters because it puts an overloaded ridgepole at the hidden center of a hexagram whose surface says the matter is small.

What is the opposite hexagram of Hexagram 62?

The opposite of Hexagram 62 is Hexagram 61, Inner Truth, produced by changing all six lines. Hexagram 61 places wind above the lake and describes conviction that reaches all the way through a situation. Set against Hexagram 62, the pair divides one task: 61 supplies the sincerity and 62 supplies the modest form it must take.

Does Hexagram 62 change when it is turned upside down?

No. Hexagram 62 is one of eight hexagrams that stay identical when inverted, along with Hexagrams 1, 2, 27, 28, 29, 30, and 61. Most hexagrams pair with a partner produced by turning them over, and that pair reads as two sides of one situation. Hexagram 62 has none.

What does Hexagram 62 mean for a decision you are weighing?

For a decision, Hexagram 62 answers yes to the smaller version and no to the larger one. The practical method is to rewrite the question at half its current size and ask whether the reading still fits, because Small Preponderance almost always fits the reduced version. If the question is whether to relocate, Hexagram 62 favors the trial stay over the move. If it is whether to leave a job, it favors the internal transfer, the reduced schedule, or the conversation with the manager over the resignation. If it is whether to confront someone, it favors the specific factual correction over the reckoning. The size test comes straight from the Judgement, and the direction test comes from the flying bird: reject the option that increases altitude, exposure, and the number of people watching. Hexagram 62 also speaks to timing through its fifth line. Dense clouds without rain describes a decision thoroughly prepared and not yet released, and the remedy is not to force the release but to fetch the capable person out of sight. That is an instruction to bring in the adviser or witness who has been left out, and to hold the announcement until they are in the room.

Two lines carry misfortune in Hexagram 62, and both describe decision errors rather than bad luck. The first line, the bird that flies too early, is the decision made before the ground is secured: the offer accepted before the terms are read, the resignation given before the next thing exists, the announcement made before the funding lands. The top line is the decision made too late and too far out, when the moment has already passed the questioner by and the bird has gone. Between those two failures the hexagram leaves a narrow window, and the fourth line describes what to do inside it: meet without going past, do not advance, stay on guard, persist. That is a holding pattern with a purpose, not indecision, and reading Hexagram 62 well means telling the two apart. Indecision is the absence of a chosen scale. What Hexagram 62 prescribes is a chosen scale that happens to be small: the limited commitment with an end date, the reversible step. Questioners who hear only stop tend to do nothing and then find the top line waiting for them. Hexagram 62 says act small, which is a different instruction from do not act.

Does Hexagram 62 mean no to a big plan?

Hexagram 62 means no to the plan at its current size and yes to a reduced version. Its Judgement states that small things may be done and great things should not be done, which is a size limit rather than a refusal. Find the smallest reversible piece, do it properly, and leave the full commitment for another reading.

What timing does Hexagram 62 indicate?

Hexagram 62 indicates a short contained interval rather than a long season, matching thunder that breaks over a summit and stops. Its place in the King Wen sequence between Hexagram 61 and Hexagram 63 puts it in the gap before a matter concludes. For timing questions it favors acting soon but briefly.

How should a questioner act after receiving Hexagram 62?

After receiving Hexagram 62, pick the smallest concrete act available inside the situation, complete it properly, and stop. The Image supplies the register: extra courtesy, honesty about loss, restraint in spending. The fourth line supplies the posture: meet without going past, do not advance, remain on guard, persist.

How does Hexagram 62 read for a relationship and for work?

In a relationship, Hexagram 62 favors small consistent gestures and reads against large declarations. It is the hexagram for the message answered the same day, the anniversary remembered, the apology given in specific terms rather than general ones. What it discourages is the grand move: the proposal, the ultimatum, the relocation for someone, the conversation meant to settle everything at once. The second line gives the relationship pattern in miniature. Meeting the ancestress instead of the ancestor means going to the person who is actually reachable rather than the one whose approval would count for more, so in a relationship reading Hexagram 62 favors talking to the partner directly instead of routing through their family, their friends, or an imagined future version of them. In work, Hexagram 62 is a maintenance and detail hexagram. It supports finishing what already exists, tightening process, correcting records, and doing the unglamorous task nobody has claimed. It reads against promotions sought early, product launches, public positioning, and confrontations with a superior. The third line is the specific workplace warning: a competent person who dismisses a smaller colleague or a minor procedural matter during this period is the one struck from behind.

The fifth line adds a distinct note to both readings. Dense clouds without rain describes a relationship where everything necessary has accumulated and nothing has been said, or a project where the work is finished and the release keeps slipping. The answer in both cases is to shoot into the cave, which commentary treats as drawing out the person who is hiding. In a relationship that is the partner who has gone quiet, and the instruction is to go and get them rather than wait for weather. At work it is the decision maker who has withdrawn from the matter. Hexagram 62 carries one further caution about proportion in both settings, taken from its nuclear Hexagram 28. A small recurring irritation in a relationship, or a small recurring defect in a process, is being reported by this hexagram as sitting on top of a larger strain. The correct response is not a large intervention, which the Judgement forbids, but repeated small corrections applied on time. That is slower than one decisive scene, and in the logic of Hexagram 62 it is the only version that works.

What does Hexagram 62 mean for a new relationship?

For a new relationship, Hexagram 62 supports small steady contact and reads against accelerating. Short regular meetings and prompt replies fit the hexagram; moving in together or a declaration meant to fix the status does not. The first line is the caution here, a bird that flies before it has any strength.

What does Hexagram 62 mean for a career move or promotion?

Hexagram 62 reads against a career move that raises the questioner's position and in favor of one that deepens current competence. The second line declines to reach the prince and settles for the official, which in a work reading means going to the accessible manager or peer rather than over their head.

Is Hexagram 62 a warning about conflict at work?

Hexagram 62 warns about one kind of workplace conflict: the strike from behind in the third line, coming from someone the questioner judged too small to matter. A dismissed junior colleague or a skipped procedural step is where the damage starts, and the remedy is scrupulous correctness.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is I Ching Hexagram 62 in one sentence?

I Ching Hexagram 62, Small Preponderance or Xiao Guo, is the reading for a period when small things outweigh great ones, formed by Zhen the thunder above Gen the mountain. Its core instruction is that small undertakings succeed while great undertakings should not be attempted, and its Judgement promises great good fortune to the questioner who chooses to remain below rather than strive upward.

Is Hexagram 62 a yes or a no?

Hexagram 62 is a qualified yes: yes to the small version of the question, no to the large one. The Judgement says small things may be done and great things should not be done, so the answer turns entirely on scale. Convert Hexagram 62 into a usable answer by halving the scope of the plan and asking whether the reduced version still counts as the thing you wanted.

What is the difference between Hexagram 62 and Hexagram 28?

Hexagram 62, Small Preponderance, has four yielding lines around two firm ones and describes an excess of the small. Hexagram 28, Preponderance of the Great, has four firm lines between two yielding ones and describes a ridgepole overloaded to the point of sagging. The two are linked structurally, because Hexagram 28 is the nuclear hexagram hidden inside Hexagram 62: a small excess on the surface, a great strain at the core.

What does Hexagram 62 say about money?

Hexagram 62 says to give preponderance to thrift, one of the three instructions in its Image alongside reverence in conduct and grief in bereavement. For money questions it favors spending under the level the occasion would permit, settling small debts precisely, and holding reserves. It reads against expansion and large purchases, which fall under the great things the Judgement rules out.

Which lines of Hexagram 62 predict misfortune?

Two lines of Hexagram 62 carry misfortune outright: six at the beginning, where the bird meets with misfortune through flying, and six at the top, where the bird flies away and the text names calamity and injury. Nine in the third place also ends in misfortune when its warning is ignored, since without extreme care somebody may come up from behind and strike. The second and fourth lines draw no blame.

What hexagram comes after Hexagram 62 in the King Wen sequence?

Hexagram 63, After Completion, follows Hexagram 62 in the King Wen sequence, and Hexagram 61, Inner Truth, precedes it. The traditional Sequence commentary reasons that one who has the confidence of others can set things moving, and that one who exceeds in small matters can carry them through. Hexagram 62 is the stretch between conviction and completion.

Why is Hexagram 62 called a bird hexagram?

Hexagram 62 is called a bird hexagram because its line arrangement, two solid lines in the center with two broken lines above and two below, is read as a body with outspread wings. The Judgement makes the picture explicit by having a flying bird deliver the message. The first and sixth lines return to it, one bird coming to grief by flying and the other flying away for good.