“Every Bird That Cuts the Airy Way”

The new book An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us (Bookshop|Amazon) delightfully combines scientific writing with a literary sensibility and a gift for vivid similes. It’s by Ed Yong, who won a Pulitzer for his reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic. The book’s title is derived from lines by poet William Blake: How do you know but every bird / that cuts the airy way / Is an immense world of delight, / closed by your senses five? This is part of a complete episode.