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In the Garden
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.
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The speaker observes the bird and tries to establish contact with the bird by offering it food. The
bird flies off. A few of the speaker's details describe the bird as a wild creature in nature, and more
details present his behavior and his appearance in terms of human behavior.
Stanza one
Because
the bird does not know the speaker is present, he behaves naturally, that is, his behavior is not affected
by her presence. We see the bird's "wildness" or non-humanness in his biting the worm in half and eating it.
"Raw" continues to emphasize his wildness. Ironically the word "raw" carries an implication of civilized values and practices ("raw"
implicitly contrasts with cooking food). Why mention that the bird ate the worm raw?
Would you expect the bird to cook the worm? Also, does the fact that the bird "came" down the walk sound civilized, socialized? does
the description sound like someone walking on a sidewalk?
Stanza two
The birds' drinking dew (note the alliteration)
suggests a certain refinement, and "from a grass" makes the action resemble the human action of drinking
from a glass. And the bird politely allows a beetle to pass.
Stanza three
In lines one and two, the description of the bird's looking around is factual description and suggests
the bird's caution and fear, as well as a possible threat in nature. With lines three and four, the speaker
describes the bird in terms of civilization, with "beads" and "velvet."
Stanza four
The idea of danger in nature is made explicit but remains a minor note in this stanza and in the poem.
It occupies only half a line, "Like one in danger." "Cautious," the speaker offers the crumb. How is "cautious " meant? Does
she feel the need to be cautious? or does she offer the crumb cautiously? (One of the characteristics of
Dickinson's poetry is a tendency to drop endings as well as connecting words and phrases; you have to
decide whether she has dropped the -ly ending from "cautious.")
Her action causes the bird to fly off. Her description of his flight details his beauty and the grace
of his flight, a description which takes six lines. Does the idea of danger or of the bird's beauty receive
more emphasis, or are the danger and the beauty emphasized equally? Does it matter in this poem
whether one receives more emphasis than the other, that is, would the different emphases affect the
meaning of the poem?
I am suggesting that this poem reveals both the danger and the beauty of nature. Does the poem
support this reading? What might Dickinson's purpose be in having the narrator see the bird in "civilized"
terms? Is it a way of pushing away or of controlling the threat and terrors that are always present and may suddenly appear
in nature?
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