A Bird Came Down
A Bird Came Down - context Summary
Published Posthumously, 1891
Published posthumously in 1891, this short lyric records a close, careful encounter between the speaker and a wild bird. Dickinson watches everyday, sometimes brutal, animal behavior—biting a worm, drinking dew—then offers a crumb and observes the bird’s wary retreat. The poem compresses an ethical tension between human sympathy and natural self-preservation, turning a simple garden scene into a reflection on distance, agency, and the delicate beauty of motion as the bird departs. It reflects Dickinson’s habitual focus on immediate surroundings and quiet attentiveness to nature.
Read Complete AnalysesA 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, splashless, as they swim.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.