"A Bird, came down the Walk" is a poem by Emily Dickinson, in which the speaker carefully observes a crow as it eats, drinks, and then flies away when she offers a crumb. It was written in 1862 and first published in 1891 as part of the second posthumous collection of her work. Dickinson is considered one of the greatest poets in the American literary canon. She was largely unknown in her own lifetime, publishing only a handful of works anonymously. The publication and critical assessment of most of her work came after her death in 1886. Her sister, Lavinia, discovered a massive stockpile of her work (largely written by hand on small scraps of paper) and pursued its publication. This particular poem deals with many of Dickinson's common thematic preoccupations: nature, mystery, and fear. It uses the story of a crow sighting to explore nature on a grander scale.
The text opens with a dramatic scene of the speaker observing a bird aggressively eating a worm. Then, in two moments that contrast this previous one, the bird drinks dew and allows a beetle to pass by. The bird then looks around, attentive and slightly frightened. The speaker makes particular note of its bead-like eyes. The speaker then carefully offers the bird a crumb before the bird stretches its wings and takes flight. She compares its wings to the oars of a boat rowing across the sea, and to the graceful float of a butterfly on an afternoon day. Throughout the reader watches a gradual shift in the speaker's understanding of and feelings about this bird.
Stylistically, the poem makes use of dashes, unconventional capitalization and some select instances of slant rhyme. It is also written with lines of iambic trimeter and tetrameter, giving it a hymn-like rhythm. Taken together, these distinct formal choices allow Dickinson to construct a poem that is as multifaceted as its main subject. With a mixture of trepidation and awe, the speaker is astonished by this bird. The poem is a journey through the arc of her changing perspective.
