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.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

33 sec read
231

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXXX XAXA XXXX XXXX XXXX
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 555
Words 110
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. more…

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