Emily Dickinson’s “A Bird came down the Walk”
Emily Dickinson’s “A Bird came down the Walk” using clever plays on words offers a keen observation, reminding listeners and readers of images which they can likely recognize.
Introduction with Text of “A Bird came down the Walk”
Emily Dickinson’s “A Bird came down the Walk” is one of the poet’s many fun poems loaded with clever word plays—a technique that creates a drama based on keen observation.
The little drama functions to remind readers and listeners of images stored in memory and scenes that they have also experienced in their lifetimes. In other words, the little fun poem is performing the primary function of any genuine poem. This Dickinson poem (#328 in Thomas H. Johnson’s Complete Poems) is one of the poet’s most anthologized poems.
The poem displays in five quatrains, employing a loose rime scheme in which the second and fourth lines sound out in either perfect (saw-raw) or slant (around-Head) rimes. Thomas H. Johnson’s Complete Poems offers the version that most closely represents the Dickinson manuscript, in which the line is “That hurried all around.”
Some editors have tried to improve or correct the poet’s rime scheme by changing “around” to “abroad.” The notion is that “abroad” is a better rime with “head” than “around.” But, as is nearly always the case, the poet’s subtle meanings are lost with these unfortunate editorial “corrections.”
For example, “abroad” suggests a much farther distance than “around.” The bird simply moved its head in such a way as to glimpse its immediate surroundings. The bird did not attempt to look searching into areas as far from it as in another country, as the term “abroad” suggests.
A Bird came down the Walk
A Bird came down the Walk –
He did not know I saw –
He bit an Angleworm 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 around –
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.
Reading
Commentary on “A Bird came down the Walk”
Emily Dickinson’s poem “A Bird came down the Walk” is one of the poet’s many fun poems filled with entertaining plays on words. The little drama originates from the poet’s keen observation, and it functions as do all genuine poems to engage the reader’s own lived experience.
First Quatrain: Human Eyes Observe a Bird
A Bird came down the Walk –
He did not know I saw –
He bit an Angleworm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw,
In the first quatrain, the speaker states simply that “A Bird came down the Walk.” Then she reports what happened next after assuring her audience that the bird remained unaware that it was being closely observed by a pair of inquisitive human eyes.
The bird grasps a worm, clips the worm in two pieces, and then swallows the unlucky creature. The bird does not bother to cook the worm—just gobbles it up “raw.” Dickinson seems to enjoy inserting some fun into her poems, and this one put on displays her sense of hilarity.
Second Quatrain: Clever and Playful Use of Terms
And then he drank a Dew
From a convenient Grass –
And then hopped sidewise to the Wall
To let a Beetle pass –
The speaker then continues to report to her audience what she sees next: the bird sips some water from a blade of grass and then jumps out of the way so a beetle could crawl by. The poet must have enjoyed the cleverness of saying that the bird “drank a Dew / From a convenient Grass.”
The term “grass” clearly will remind the reader of the term “glass” from which the human beings are accustomed to drinking. While having the bird take a sip of the dew off a piece of grass is perfectly natural, it is equally convenient that the words so seemingly accidentally align with human experience.
After imbibing his sip of dew, the polite avian steps aside allowing another creature of nature to continue on with his journey. The speaker is portraying little acts of civility a she describes the antics of nature which she has so keenly observed.
Third Quatrain: Fidgeting, Frightened Eyes
He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all around –
They looked like frightened Beads, I thought –
He stirred his Velvet Head
The speaker then reports the details regarding the eyes of the bird. This report seems to suggest the speaker was quite close to the bird. She was able to detect that his eyes moved quickly as they glimpsed “all around.” She also noticed that they resembled “frightened Beads.”
The absurdity of beads having the sensibility to become frightened simply strikes the consciousness as an appropriate use of exaggeration. No one would be confused and think that the speaker actually believes beads can experience emotion—especially since the speaker employs a simile and then inserts the claim “I thought.”
Also, it is likely that somewhere in the reader’s memory is the same sight—having seen a bird’s rapid eye movement. Thus, in this poem, the poet’s dramatic re-creation gives the reader back that image stored in memory. The observation, the image, the memory, and the experience all coming to support the fact that the claim is absolutely accurate.
It is, in fact, a perfectly accurate observation: those little black avian eyes “looked like frightened Beads.” And then the bird’s head begins to move: “He stirred his Velvet Head.”
Fourth Quatrain: Fear of Feeding
Like one in danger, Cautious,
I offered him a Crumb
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home –
The speaker understands exactly why the bird seemed suddenly to experience frightened eyes. And the bird begins to move his head because he has become fearful that the speaker has approached so close to the bird—close enough to attempt to bestow on him a morsel of food. The speaker says she offered him “a Crumb.”
Immediately after she offers him a bit of food, he does not stick around to accept that crumb—he flies off. The speaker then dramatizes that avian exit: “he unrolled his feathers / And rowed him softer home.”
Fifth Quatrain: Seamless Rowing
Than Oars divide the Ocean,
Too silver for a seam –
Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon
Leap, plashless as they swim.
In the final quatrain, the speaker fashions her vitally important re-creation of the velvety smoothness of the bird’s flight. At the end of the fourth quatrain, the speaker had begun a comparison, stating that “he rowed him softer home.
She then continues and concludes that comparison in the first line of the final quatrain with “Than oars divide the Ocean.” The bird’s flight through the air remains invisible, as one does not see the air parting as the bird’s wings cut through it.
Thus, the bird flight is much softer in sight and sound than when one rows a boat through water using oars. The bird’s “rowing” was “Too silver for a seam.” And not only was it softer and seamless compared to rowing a boat on water, the bird’s flight was even smoother than the flight of butterflies jumping into the rivers of “Noon” swimming and splashing about.
The line “off Banks of Noon” likely encouraged another smile of satisfaction to poet’s face as she swam around in her own drama of cleverness. After all, she had created those immortal images that will reawaken the dormant memories in readers and listeners years and years hence.
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