A level poem summary sheet on 'A bird came down the walk by Emily Dickinson' including notes on stanza by stanza analysis, form, structure, techniques, themes and overviews. Perfect for A level revision of Emily Dickinson poetry or perfect even for templates on how to analyse poetry.
Poem Summary Sheet: A Bird came down the Walk
CONTENT: A Bird came down the Walk is about a speakers encounter with a Bird and how it reveals
to them the beauty and yet harshness of nature. The learns to appreciate all parts of nature
harmoniously in this poem, the good and the bad. Also, the speaker investigates how humans relate
to nature.
THEMES: Nature, Relationship between man and nature
STANZA BY STANZA ANALYSIS:
1ST STANZA:
The use of the pronoun ‘he’ and imagery of the bird coming down the ‘Walk’ almost personifies the
bird as a human. This could be used to heighten the contrast between humans and animals whilst
also showing their similarities we kill things, drink, eat, act gentlemanly. How are we so different to
animals? He bites the angleworm in ‘halves’ is a disturbing image of the bird becoming a predator
and the dangerous side to nature. The angleworm is depicted as a ‘fellow’ personifying it to make us
feel as though this is an even more atrocious act. He eats it ‘raw’ depicting the savageness and
brutality but also contrasting him to humans and their perspective of cooking things. Its the cycle of
nature it seems brutal to us but we do the same thing the only difference is we don’t eat our prey
‘raw’.
2nd STANZA:
Then bird is still being referred to as ‘he’ therefore continuing the personification of the bird. The
alliteration on ‘drank a Dew’ draws attention to this action. There is repetition of the indefinite
article ‘a’. The grass is called ‘convenient’ which emphasises the way of nature as it surrounds us and
so food, drink and everything else that is needed to survive is all around. The phrase ‘hopped
sidewise’ is quite unusual it connotes excitement, fun, vibrancy and so this bird is associate with
beauty and life. However, the movement ‘sidewise’ to let a ‘beetle pass’ anthropomorphises the bird
and is such as human action and characteristic of chivalry and gentlemanliness. Once again we
identify a piece of ourselves as humans in the actions and movement of the Bird.
3rd STANZA:
The verb ‘glanced’ gives a sort of immediacy and apprehension as it is with ‘rapid eyes’. Perhaps the
bird has a sudden feeling that they are in danger or something is coming for them. The eyes ‘hurried’
emphasising this sense of panic. The alliteration of ‘all around’ and the long vowel sounds created
emphasises this sense of danger and panic. The simile of ‘frightened Beads’ and defamiliarization of
the eyes as beads now is quite disturbing. The syntactical placement of ‘I thought’ at the end
emphasises the fact that this is from the perspective of the speaker and their own personal
encounter. It personalises this experience with nature also. The phrase ‘Velvet head’ once again
shows the beauty and elegance of the bird as velvet is a fine and expensive material.
4th STANZA:
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