In the first stanza, the speaker "remembers" the cry of the peacocks, but now the speaker is actually "hearing" them. This repetition echoes the cycle of the "turning of the leaves," symbolizing the cycle of life and death. Peacocks are known for being beautiful, but there is an underlying sense of mortality that goes with this surface beauty; after all, this physical beauty is only temporary.
In Bruce Ross' essay on "Domination of Black," notes that many critics have seen the peacocks' inclusion in this poem as evoking a "celebration of the natural beauty of cyclic change." So, many find that their appearance in the poem is a positive, or is otherwise commenting on how beauty can rise out of the chaos of nature. However, he takes it a step further to say that while the peacocks' "colorful plumage" does provide an image of our "sensuously perceived reality," their cry contradicts this, providing a vocal source of protest for the poet. Ross notes that the cry of a peacock is a "hoarse and unpleasant screaming" that lies in direct contrast to its outer beauty. So, the peacocks' cry serves to break through what would otherwise just be a display of the gorgeous colors of their tail, or the changing colors of the leaves. The sound of the cry disturbs what would otherwise be a peaceful setting.
In Bruce Ross' essay on "Domination of Black," notes that many critics have seen the peacocks' inclusion in this poem as evoking a "celebration of the natural beauty of cyclic change." So, many find that their appearance in the poem is a positive, or is otherwise commenting on how beauty can rise out of the chaos of nature. However, he takes it a step further to say that while the peacocks' "colorful plumage" does provide an image of our "sensuously perceived reality," their cry contradicts this, providing a vocal source of protest for the poet. Ross notes that the cry of a peacock is a "hoarse and unpleasant screaming" that lies in direct contrast to its outer beauty. So, the peacocks' cry serves to break through what would otherwise just be a display of the gorgeous colors of their tail, or the changing colors of the leaves. The sound of the cry disturbs what would otherwise be a peaceful setting.