'New knowledge of reality'

An American robin, one of the most common New England songbirds.

"At the earliest ending of winter, 

In March, a scrawny cry from outside 

Seemed like a sound in his mind. 

"He knew that he heard it, 

A bird’s cry, at daylight or before, 

In the early March wind. ..

"Surrounded by its choral rings, 

Still far away. It was like 

A new knowledge of reality.''

-- From Wallace Stevens's "Not Ideas About the Thing but the Thing Itself". Stevens was arguably, after Robert Frost, the greatest 20th Century American poet. He was also a highly successful insurance executive in Hartford, which for many decades was called
"the insurance capital''  of the world.