It is set to the words of L'Oiseau Bleu, a poem by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, which depicts a blue bird in flight over a lake.

[1][4] The form first became influential in England when partsongs by Felix Mendelssohn were translated into English, and the genre grew in part due to the popularity of early 19th century choral societies.

[14] As for other imagery, Paul Rodmell writes that the slowly-moving nature of the music (larghetto tranquillo, or rather slow[7]) depicts "a perfect picture of a still, hot day".

[18] "The Blue Bird" was one of many poems published posthumously under Coleridge's own name in 1908, after she died prematurely the previous year aged 45.

The poet carefully identifies the subject of the poem as 'I' so that as each of us reads or hears it, we see this image in our mind's eye as if we ourselves are the witness of the event ...

"[20] In Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Dibble notes that "The Blue Bird" demonstrates Stanford's expertise in sophisticated and refined diatonic harmonic language along with a "lyrical flair".

In an address at Stanford's centenary, the composer Herbert Howells remarked how "The Blue Bird" in particular was widely performed among choral societies across the country, and how it formed an "essential beauty in the hearts of unnumbered singers.

"[22] Musicologist Jeremy Dibble, who specialises in Stanford and his works, describes "The Blue Bird" as "perhaps one of the greatest English part-songs ever written.

"[23][24] In his biography of Stanford, musicologist Paul Rodmell compares "The Blue Bird" within the context of Eight Partsongs (Op.

[12] Judith Bingham's The Drowned Lovers (setting her own words, after Mary Coleridge) was intended as a partner work for "The Blue Bird", using harmonies derivied from the original.

[8] It is also part of Choral Music - English Madrigals and Songs from Henry VIII to the 20th Century (Naxos 8.553088, 1996) performed by the Oxford Camerata under Jeremy Summerly.