Emily Dickinson’s “I have a Bird in spring”
Emily Dickinson’s riddle-poem “I have a Bird in spring” features the speaker’s musing on her ability to sense existence beyond the earthly, material level of physical reality. She also expresses her confidence that the “Bird” she possesses is not one that she could ever lose.
Introduction with Text of “I have a Bird in spring”
Emily Dickinson’s “I have a Bird in spring” exemplifies the poet’s oft-employed strategy of creating little dramas that not only function as poems, but they also work well as fascinating riddles.
The speaker never states the name of this strange bird that can fly away from her and then return bringing her new melodies from far beyond the sea.
This metaphoric avian winging its way beyond a metaphoric sea possesses the delicious power to calm any doubts and fears that might molest the speaker. That a mere bird could retain such seemingly magical powers renders this Dickinsonian riddle one of her most profound and most captivating little dramas.
I have a Bird in spring
I have a Bird in spring
Which for myself doth sing –
The spring decoys.
And as the summer nears –
And as the Rose appears,
Robin is gone.
Yet do I not repine
Knowing that Bird of mine
Though flown –
Learneth beyond the sea
Melody new for me
And will return.
Fast in safer hand
Held in a truer Land
Are mine –
And though they now depart,
Tell I my doubting heart
They’re thine.
In a serener Bright,
In a more golden light
I see
Each little doubt and fear,
Each little discord here
Removed.
Then will I not repine,
Knowing that Bird of mine
Though flown
Shall in distant tree
Bright melody for me
Return.
Reading of “I have a Bird in spring”
Commentary on “I have a Bird in spring”
The speaker muses on and dramatizes the activity of a metaphoric bird that can bring to her wonderful bits of information from beyond the material level of existence.
First Stanza: A Strange Bird
I have a Bird in spring
Which for myself doth sing –
The spring decoys.
And as the summer nears –
And as the Rose appears,
Robin is gone.
The speaker begins employing a rather straight forward claim that becomes ever more mysterious as she continues. She reports that she is in possession of “a Bird in spring.” However, that “Bird” sings for her alone. Such a statement remains intriguing because it seems obvious that birds sing for everyone, or rather perhaps they sing for no one but themselves and likely other birds.
Even if this speaker is creating her little ditty about a pet bird that she keeps in a cage, that bird likely would not sing simply for his care-taker. Paul Laurence Dunbar’s speaker has averred in his poem “Sympathy” that he “knows why the caged bird sings,” and the bird does not sing only for the one who has caged him.
Thus, the puzzle continues to plays out. Why is this “Bird” singing only for his owner/care-taker? Thus, the speaker then asserts that as spring moves on, the season lures her away from her “Bird.” But then as she moves into summer, she becomes attracted by the beauty of “the Rose,” but then her “Bird,” whom she now calls “Robin” has flown away.
The first stanza leaves the audience cogitating on such a mystifying conundrum: an unusual bird that seems to belong to a person, simply up and disappears as the season of spring with all of its lushness has captured the individual’s attention and as roses are starting to blow forth for summer.
Second Stanza: Not a “bird” – but a “Bird”
Yet do I not repine
Knowing that Bird of mine
Though flown –
Learneth beyond the sea
Melody new for me
And will return.
The speaker then offers yet another surprising claim. She reports that she does not worry that the bird has vanished. She remains confident that this special “Bird” has simply winged its way “beyond the sea” where he will accrue some new melodies.
The bird with his newly learned repertoire will then return to her. Once again, the speaker has offered an even more puzzling event for the audience to ponder. Her rare bird has apparently flown away, but the avian’s owner/care-taker seems to remain convinced that he will fly back to her. The likelihood of any person recognizing the same bird that had flown far way from her remains next to nil.
As thousands of birds appear and fly away chirping throughout the land or landing in trees, the ability to distinguish the same bird as the exact one that flew away and then returned would be a stunning feat.
The speaker’s claim seems ridiculous—however, it may not be ridiculous because that “Bird” that she owns is not a “bird.” Instead the avian referred to by the speaker is, in fact, a “Bird.” It is thus a metaphorical bird. And because he is a metaphoric not a literal bird, the audience has to rethink all those claims that seemed so terribly unusual.
In order to take this confusing discourse seriously, the reader must interpret a metaphorical bird. How can a bird be metaphorical? The speaker is calling a bird a “Bird,” and that figurative “Bird” is not a literal bird.
Third Stanza: Divine Creator as Muse
Fast in safer hand
Held in a truer Land
Are mine –
And though they now depart,
Tell I my doubting heart
They’re thine.
The speaker then makes it clear that this metaphorical “Bird” is her muse. Her muse thus retains the qualities, features, and aspects of her soul. Those soul qualities and functions permit her to fashion a new creation, such as her magnificent other “sky,” which includes her marvelously perpetual “garden” of poetry. Thus, the speaker creates her garden of verse, where she can spend her time, her effort, and her love. In this metaphysical world, she can continue to fashion a different world.
Even as she lives in the world of physical, material, earthly existence, because she communes with her inner being—her soul which is a spark of the Ultimate Creator (God)—she can create just the Creator does.
Her soul—through the instrumentality of her metaphysical “Bird”— bestows on her the ability to comprehend that fact that she along with her talent remains secure in the presence of the Divine Creator.
The speaker, her soul, her muse, and her talent are all “Held in a truer Land”—a metaphorical, cosmic location that remains more real because it is ever existing as well as eternally present, unlike the planet called Earth, on which immortality and eternity do not exist.
Aging, fading, destruction, and death obtain on the physical level of existence, for example, on such place as the Earth planet. The speaker’s compendium of joy includes her mental abilities, her writing talent, and her love and appreciation of beauty, poetry, and the arts and science.
This compendium the speaker has fashioned into a metaphorical, metaphysical “Bird” is secured “fast” by a “safer hand.” The speaker’s Heavenly Father, Divine Creator (God) guides and guards her in myriad mystery-making ways. She remains aware, however, that she follows that guidance through faith because she continues to work and ponder with a “doubting heart.”
However, she informs her doubting heart that the compendium of joyous qualities, metaphorically fashioned into her “Bird,” still belong to her. Though at times they may seem to move beyond her sight, her strong faith keeps her mind convinced that immortality and eternity belong to her.
As the Shakespearean sonneteer, who often complains about periods of creative dryness that afflict him, this speaker confesses that certain entities and events of spring and summer may distract her, allowing her “Bird” to seem to fly off and disappear for long whiles. Nevertheless, she finds relief through the understanding that her talent is merely resting and likely experiencing further development somewhere out of her vision.
Her “Bird” is just off somewhere learning new melodies for her to sing and fashion into new dramas. Even more important is that she need not entertain doubts about the return of that special bird. They will return to her because “They’re [hers].” What belongs to her, she cannot lose.
Fourth Stanza: Seeing through Mystic Eyes
In a serener Bright,
In a more golden light
I see
Each little doubt and fear,
Each little discord here
Removed.
The speaker moves on detailing the reasoning that allows her to be sure that her “Bird” will return to her. During her periods of clear sight which she at times experiences even with the absence of her “Bird,” she can sense in a “more golden light” that all her doubts, worries, fears, and discordant thoughts “here” can be removed.
As she remains living upon this Earth planet, she acknowledges that her fears will likely persist in attacking her. However, because of her assurance of her own divinity through her the power of her soul—that spark of the Divine Creator—she remains capable of realizing that those trials and tribulations brought on by the dualities and pairs of opposites of Earth life are time-stamped.
In opposition to the temporal, her soul power is permanent without any limitation or stamp of time. The speaker possesses to ability to perceive through mystic eyes in a “serener Bright” and “golden light.” These cosmic lights bestow upon her the ability to quiet her doubting heart.
She possesses the awareness that Eternity and Immortality are hers. Her capacity to continue creating her own “sky” and “garden” remains absolute—the knowledge of the Absolute has the power to quiet and even eliminate fears and doubts.
Fifth Stanza: The Virtue of Patience
Then will I not repine,
Knowing that Bird of mine
Though flown
Shall in distant tree
Bright melody for me
Return.
The speaker can finally report that she will no longer fuss and fret if her “Bird” remains away from her for extended periods. She will remain confident that he will return to her and bring with him beautiful, glowing melodies.
Even though that “Bird of [hers]” may retain a inclination for disappearing from her sight, she is sure that her own consciousness is simply being distracted by other entities and events of “spring” and “summer.” Those warm seasonal activities just permit her “Bird” to flutter deep into the darkened areas of her mental sphere.
The speaker experiences great joy in creating her little dramatic pieces, and also once again similar to the Shakespearean sonneteer, she possesses the great ability to create her dramas even as she appears to be experiencing a blockage in the flowing of her words.
Incubation and Writing
Writing teachers and rhetoricians explain the concept of incubation as a stage of the writing process, a period of time when the writer seems not to be thinking directly about his writing project but to be allowing his thoughts to quietly proliferate, even as he goes about performing other activities.
Dickinson and the Shakespearean sonneteer, as creative writers, were able to use that concept for creating their little dramas, even as they, no doubt, chafed under their seeming inability to create.
Dickinson’s mystic sight afforded her an even stronger talent for delivering her mind to performance because she knew her soul to be immortal, and she was able to see mystically beyond the physical, Earth-level of being. The Shakespeare writer’s faith was strong enough to render him nearly as capable as Dickinson, as his “Muse” sonnet sequence (Part 1 and Part 2) testifies.
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