A Bird Came Down the Walk

First 3 stanzas - bird is oblivious to the fact he is being watched, goes about his business.
celebration of the ordinary - magical nature of the everyday- mundane sight appearing extraordinary
celebrates nature - lovingly describes the bird, beetle, grass sparkling with dew, butterflies, the vast silver ocean - natures beauty
realistic view of nature - brutality and fear - natural order of things, devours worm, in fearful state itself "glanced with rapid eyes that hurried all around"
parable for love - allegory for a failed love relationship - male bird rep Dickinson's lost lover, offers the bird a "crumb" he love, he rejects her offer and disappears, leaving her struck by his majesty "too silver for a seam"
four line stanzas, strong iambic rhythm, lines of 6 syllables, third line each stanza 8 syllables
assonance - "rowed him softer home" "velvet" and "head"
alliteration "Oars divide the Ocean" "Butterflies, off Banks of noon" "Too silver for a seam"
tone - first two stanzas casual playful innocent, worm described as a "fellow" grass as "convenient" ---- stanza 3 tone shifts, note of danger, look out for potential threats, atmosphere darkens ---- final stanza one of joyous exultation - celebrates majesty of bird taking flight
imagery - opening stanzas - cute, homely, little traffic jam almost comedic "and then he hopped sidewise to the Wall/ To let a Beetle pass"
birds flight is compared to a boat - inventive metaphor - rowing into the sky - "and rowed him softer home-"
air depicted as a liquid element through which the bird "rows" and the butterflly "Swims"
dickinsons world and the birds world
keen observer of nature and the natural world
bird entering the human world "came down the walk"
human influence on nature
smooth natural departure after human presence
tactile image "he stirred his Velvet Head"

	Created by niamhmoynagh over 11 years ago

Emily Dickinson Note on A Bird Came Down the Walk, created by niamhmoynagh on 27/05/2013.

A Bird Came Down the Walk