A Bird Came Down the Walk by Emily Dickenson - Critical Analysis

A Bird Came Down the Walk composed by reputed American poetess, Emily Dickinson brings a very common or ordinary incident with acute observation of detail and allows the reader to see a great significance in this seemingly trivial incident which adorns the reality of nature. Thus, this poem is based on the theme of unnecessary interference of nature by man.

Here the poet has taken a bird as the protagonist (the center focus of this incident) or as the agent of nature to make this common scene very natural and realistic. Furthermore, the bird in this poem is symbolical as it represents the rest of nature. In this incident, the readers can clearly see the bird’s natural self-possession and it being at harmony with its own nature by enjoying the treasures of nature at its own free will. Thus the poetess visualizes  a very common act of a bird, coming down the path, catches a worm and pecks at it with its beak and splits it, eats it witch much appetite, then it fetches water from its immediate environment. Here we can clearly see the bird quenches its thirst with the help of the resources within its surrounding.

“He bit an angle-worm in halves

And ate the fellow raw. . .

And then drank a dew

From a convenient grass”

Then it steps aside to let a crawling beetle pass as it would have felt it is unnecessary to hunt more as it has already fulfilled its hunger and quenched its thirst. Furthermore it shows that nature is self-sufficient and everything is found in abundance.

“And then hopped. . .

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”

Here the poetess shows another aspect of nature, that the dependents of nature are being inundated or endowed with suspicion, fear and doubt, so it becomes nervous and agitated as it senses an imminent danger in its vicinity(rapid eyes, frighten beads, velvet head), thinking it might become a victim or prey of another predator. The fourth stanza is the climax of this whole incident, when the narrator offers the bird ‘a crumb’ it refuses it vehemently and,

“And he unrolled his feathers,

and rowed him softer home”

Here the poetess uses a different set of diction (unrolled, rowed) to convey the idea that the bird really has become anxious by her interference as it would have sensed danger closing at his hand, therefore it immediately stretched its wings and flew away. The writer has shown the bird’s sudden retirement, urgency and immediacy using

“Than oars divide the ocean

Or butterflies off banks of noon

Leap plashless as they swim”

Thus, with this common and minor incident the poetess has been able to offer a very fine piece of advice, very effectively and successfully.