A BIRD CAME DOWN THE WALK BY EMILY DICKINSON

POEM INTRODUCTION:

“A Bird came down the Walk” is a small narrative poem written by Emily Dickinson. This poem was published in the second collection of Dickinson’s poems in 1891. It was named as In the Garden in the first published version. As usual she used many literary devices to explain natural beauty of the world with her keen observation. This poem follows long dashes as pauses and has the rhyme scheme of ABCB.

POEM:

A Bird, came down the Walk -

He did not know I saw -

He bit an Angle Worm in halves

And ate the fellow, raw,

And then, he drank a Dew

From a convenient Grass -

And then hopped sidewise to the Wall

To let a Beetle pass -

He glanced with rapid eyes,

That hurried all abroad -

They looked like frightened Beads, I thought,

He stirred his Velvet Head. -

Like one in danger, Cautious,

I offered him a Crumb,

And he unrolled his feathers,

And rowed him softer Home -

Than Oars divide the Ocean,

Too silver for a seam,

Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon,

Leap, plashless as they swim.

POEM SUMMARY:

The poet is witnessing a bird which came down in search of food in a garden walkway. But that bird didn’t know that she had grasped a look on him. The Bird is personified as ‘He’.Unaware of her present, he made Angle Worm into pieces of two parts roughly and ate it in a fresh and raw way. Here the poet mentioned Angle Worm as ‘the fellow’. After that, he drank dew drops water from the close by grass and hops alongside slowly to give way for the beetle to pass. The poet explains her thought about his bead like eyes movement that moves rapidly and glances around with anxiousness. He rustle up his velvet head slightly to look around.The poet says that she offered him a small piece of bread or cookies in a watchful manner to not make him fly. Yet, he opens his wings softly and flight back to his home. The poet compares bird wings with a long shaft of wood that is used for propelling a boat by rowing, his body with boat and blue sky with the ocean. His feathers sparkle and flies softly like butterflies leaping into noon’s bank. The bird flies as if swimming smoothly without splash.