Analysis of A Bird Came Down

Emily Dickinson 1830 (Amherst) – 1886 (Amherst)



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, splashless, as they swim.


Scheme XXXX XAXA XXXX XXXX XXXX
Poetic Form Etheree  (35%)
Quatrain  (20%)
Metre 011101 111111 11110101 010101 011101 100101 0111101 110101 111101 110101 11110111 111101 1101010 110101 011110 011101 1101010 110101 1101111 11111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 555
Words 110
Sentences 4
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 88
Words per stanza (avg) 21
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

33 sec read
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Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. more…

All Emily Dickinson poems | Emily Dickinson Books

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