"I have a Bird in spring" By Emily Dickinson [Analysis]

I have a Bird in spring[1] Which for myself doth sing --[2] The spring decoys.[3] And as the summer nears --[4] And as the Rose appears,[5] Robin is gone.[6] Yet do I not repine[7] Knowing that Bird of mine[8] Though flown --[9] Learneth beyond the sea[10] Melody new for me[11] And will return.[12] Fast is a safer hand[13] Held in a truer Land[14] Are mine --[15] And though they now depart,[16] Tell I my doubting heart[17] They're thine.[18] In a serener Bright,[19] In a more golden light[20] I see[21] Each little doubt and fear,[22] Each little discord here[23] Removed.[24] Then will I not repine,[25] Knowing that Bird of mine[26] Though flown[27] Shall in a distant tree[28] Bright melody for me[29] Return.[30]
Poem 5 [F4] "I have a Bird in spring" Analysis by David Preest [Poem]

This poem was also part of a letter (L173) to Sue while she was absent from Amherst. It was sent in September 1884, about eighteen months after poem 4. In the meantime Sue had become engaged to Emily's brother Austin, and so was unable to continue her relationship with his sister with the fervour Emily wanted. Emily could not conceal her disappointment, and wrote this letter which Richard Sewall calls 'an extraordinary one for Emily, the nearest approach to surliness and dismissal of any that survive.' The letter begins bitterly, 'Sue - you can go or stay - There is but one alternative - We differ often lately, and this must be the last.' It ends on a resigned, despondent note, 'We have walked very pleasantly - Perhaps this is the point at which our paths diverge - then pass on singing, Sue, and up the distant hill I journey on.' Then follows the poem, in which Emily acknowledges a happier possibility. The spring in which she had

been 'decoyed' and caught by the bird that was Sue may have been replaced by the summer of Sue's absence during which 'little doubts and fears and discords' have grown up, but Emily tells her 'doubting heart' that on Sue's return she will bring back with her some new melody which she has learned in her absence, and they will live 'in a serener Bright.' In a letter to Mrs Holland written a month later Emily comforts herself in her friend's absence by writing, as prose, words which echo the end of poem 5, 'Then will I not repine, knowing that bird of mine, though flown - learneth beyond the sea, melody new for me, and will return (L175).'
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