Pages

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Versedays: A Bird Came Down the Walk by Emily Dickinson

Recently, evenings here in Bangalore (South India) have been a rain soaked affair. The clouds gather in the evening without fail just as I am leaving work and most of the time I arrive home freshly washed. It’s a mixed feeling. I hate the inconvenience of it all. The wet clothes, the bad roads and the immediate traffic gridlocks. And yet, I revel in the smell of newly bathed trees, the birds that start chirping immediately after the rains, the wet mud and the awakening of senses dulled by the day’s pressures. Hence, this week’s Versedays is a tribute to Nature as she comes alive.


A Bird Came Down the Walk

by

Emily Dickinson

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.




















Emily Dickinson’s poetry is known for its darker strains. This is comparatively a lighthearted one, where the narrator is apparently observing the actions of a bird. Containing some wonderful imagery, especially in the last stanza, I loved the simplicity of the descriptions during what appears to be a lazy afternoon. But it seems that the poem has deeper messages as I was enlightened by this article.

Image Credit: Infosecurity

No comments:

Post a Comment