Emily Dickinson's 'A Bird Came Down The Walk'

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), one of America’s greatest poets, is popular for her crisp and straightforward poetry that unravels the most ordinary aspects of life. With her razor-sharp observation, she takes in and lives deeply every moment and atom of existence, celebrating the wonder and mystery of both the light and dark sides of life. Here is a beautiful short poem from Dickinson that philosophizes the walk and flight of a humble bird, capturing the extraordinary beauty, power and grace of the most ordinary. Particularly impressive is the final comparison of the bird's flight to the oars of a boat smoothly cutting through the silver seamless ocean or butterflies leaping effortlessly into the afternoon air without a splash or sound.

 

A Bird, came down the Walk

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.

-          Emily Dickinson