Emily Dickinson “A Bird Came Down The Walk” By: Kacidie Whitehill

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, splash less, as they swim.

Emily Dickinson Born December 10, 1830 Studied at Amherst Academy She was a prolific private poet Fewer than a dozen of her 1,800 poems were published Her poems contained short lines, no titles, and used slant rhyme Many of her poems were about death or immorality Her sister Lavinia discovered the true meaning of her poems and today’s critics consider to be a major American poet

Critic Thinking Many people view the poetry of Emily Dickinson differently. Some people think that Emily Dickinson was one of America’s greatest poets. Some people criticize her poetry for being strange and too hard to understand. R.P. Blackmur said that her work is often cryptic in thought and unmelodious in expression. Then he talks about the good things in her poems. He says that she describes not external beauty but the effect of nature upon a observer. The poem “ A Bird Came Down The Walk” is a very simple poem but has a great meaning behind it. Shows how humans can disturb nature and how we can get them to come back with just being calm and giving them something.

The rhyme Uses iambic trimeter ABCB rhyme scheme 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, splash less, as they swim. Uses iambic trimeter ABCB rhyme scheme Rhythmically breaking up the meter with long dashes to show the pauses