A Bird Came Down the Walk

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

She was a prolific private poet hailing from America. Fewer than a dozen of her nearly 1,800 poems were
published during her lifetime. Her poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short
lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and
punctuation. Her poems often reveal her strong attachment and fascination to the natural world. Many of
her poems deal with themes of death and immortality.

This poem is presented employing the first person narrative perspective with five quatrains including a
proper rhyme scheme and a regular meter. It illustrates the poet persona’s encounter with a bird which is an
insignificant and trivial incident. The poet’s precise description about this trivial incident seems to make a
very powerful impression on the reader. This impression seems to convey to the reader how we are supposed
to deal with nature. If we attempt to interfere with nature unnecessarily there will be a conflict between man
and nature. The poet’s acute observation of the bird’s movements seems to reveal the qualities of the bird’s
character exhibited through ‘his’ actions.

The themes of the poem

Coming under the main theme ‘nature’ the poem seems to convey several specific themes as well.

 Self-sufficiency, dignity and self-assuredness of the inmates of nature

A bird is a part of nature which has its own characteristic behaviour including quirks and eccentricities. The
way the bird bit the angle-worm and ate it raw denotes its eccentric beahviour characteristic of beasts. It
doesn’t depend on any one else as it is capable of finding its own food so it is self-sufficient. When the poet
offers him a piece of bread crumb it flies away gracefully showing its dignity. We might feel that the bird
was arrogant enough not to have accepted the crumb offered by the poet.

eg:- “I offered him a crumb,

And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home.”

After appeasing its hunger the bird satisfies by drinking a drop of dew from a convenient grass again
showing self-sufficiency. The bird is self-assured and able to survive on its own.
The bird’s dignified behaviour is observed through its action as it behaves like a gentleman hopping
sidewise to the wall to let a beetle pass. The poet’s admiration of the bird’s ability to coexist with the beetle
or any other creature is also implied here.

 The beauty of nature

The bird’s graceful flight is vividly depicted by the poet in comparison to the movement of an oar dividing
the ocean water, the butterflies flying off the river bank in the afternoon. When a man rows a boat using an
oar the oar will move through the water delicately due to the fluidal nature of water. The bird’s flying away
from the poet is observed as much softer and more fascinating than the oar dividing ocean water.
Furthermore, butterflies’ leaping off the river banks is also compared to the graceful flight of the bird which
is more graceful. These movements are used to emphasize that the bird’s movement was more delicate and
charming.
  Man versus nature
The relationship between man and nature is illustrated through the poet and the bird. The poet’s observation,
her actions and the bird’s reactions seem to reveal the fact that the beauty of nature can fascinate man
persuading him to appreciate it and deal with it. But in this encounter the poet’s overture (approach to
establish a relationship) fails since the bird behaves instinctively after sensing some sort of danger. It flies
away in order to assure its security and it’s quite natural for a bird to behave like that. Man sometimes
attempts to appreciate nature by going very close to the natural element but it will only disrupt the smooth
functioning of it. Especially birds do not want to be disturbed themselves as they also have a strong sense of
freedom, dignity and self-sufficiency. The poet might have felt placatory (to satisfy) or charitable and never
wanted to harm it but the bird’s natural instinct persuaded it to defend itself the moment it felt the human
presence near at hand. So this reminds us that,
“Nature is self-sufficient – Leave it alone.”
“Nature is beautiful – Admire it from a distance.”

The techniques available in the poem

 Quatrains with the rhyme scheme of ballad stanza

The stanzas of the poem have two regular meters and a proper rhyme scheme comprising four lines each so
they can be known as quatrains. The first, second and fourth lines have iambic tri meter whereas the third
line has iambic tetra meter. Each stanza has ‘abcb’ rhyme scheme which is seen in ballad stanzas.

eg:-A bird came down the walk a

He did not know I saw b
He bit an angle-worm in halves c
And ate the fellow raw. b

 Slant rhyme / half rhyme

This technique is characteristic of Emily Dickinson’s poetry. The first two stanzas have perfect rhyme while
the other three have slant rhyme.
eg:- saw – raw abroad – head
grass – pass crumb – home
seam – swim
 Consonance
eg:- And then he hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass

 Assonance
eg:- Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, plashless as they swim.

 Simile
eg:- They looked like frightened beads, I thought

 Metaphor
eg:- velvet head, convenient grass, rapid eyes

 visual imagery
The reader can visualize the actions of the bird as a series of vivid mental pictures that provide some notions
of the bird’s instinctive behaviour.

Prepared by Prasad Rathnasekara

[BA (Eng), MA (Linguistics), Music Visharad (Vocal) Contact on 071 8617810