Writer Wednesday: Poetry with Emily Dickinson

Hello! On today’s Writer Wednesday, I’m looking at Emily Dickinson’s poem of watching a bird in her garden. While gardening recently, I was joined by this cheerful companion. I imagine Emily’s visitor must have looked much the same.

Part Two: Nature by Emily Dickinson

XXIII

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, plashless, as they swim.