16 pages • 32 minutes read
Emily DickinsonA Bird, came down the Walk
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1891A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“The Eagle” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1851)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson is one of the most important poets of the Victorian period. His precise meter and perfect rhymes form a sharp contrast to his contemporary American poets, who were often exploring free verse. Tennyson’s depiction in “The Eagle” of a strong bird displaying its power contrasts well with Dickinson’s bird, who engages with the world more casually and even timidly.
“Pigeons” by James Henry (1866)
James Henry’s “Pigeons” shares many of the same impulses as Dickinson’s “A Bird, came down the Walk” in observing a bird’s behavior. While Dickinson’s speaker and the bird share a moment of companionship, Henry’s pigeon faces a harsher ending when it feels “at its throat the knife” (Line 9) slaughtering it for pigeon pie.
“Hope is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson (1891)
“Hope is the thing with feathers” describes the abstract human emotion of hope as having bird-like qualities, something that “perches in the soul” and “sings” to give someone courage. The poem is a good example of how Dickinson often draws upon natural imagery to explore human psychology and emotional states.
“Sunday Morning” by Wallace Stevens (1915)
Wallace Stevens is at the forefront of American Modernism. His “Sunday Morning” begins with a meditation on the “green freedom of a cockatoo” (Line 3) before exploring deeper resonances between birds, freedom, and religion. Stevens’s poem explores the relationship between birds and human spirituality at length, and is another example of a poet finding the sublime in the everyday.
Further Literary Resources
“Society and Solitude” by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1870)
Dickinson thought highly of Transcendentalist thinkers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Emerson’s essay, Society and Solitude, engages with some of the most salient ideas behind the American philosophy. Dickinson’s non-conformity and eccentric lifestyle mirrors many Transcendentalist philosophies of self-reliance, natural beauty, and simple living.
“Emily Dickinson's Letters” by Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1891)
Thomas Wentworth Higginson was an American Unitarian minister, author, and one of Dickinson’s first editors. Dickinson and Wentworth corresponded frequently until Dickinson’s death, and Higginson wrote “Emily Dickinson’s Letters” in response to her growing posthumous fame and the public desire to know more about her. Published five years after Dickinson’s death, the article recounts Higginson’s experience of Dickinson as a friend and contemporary.
“Emily Dickinson's Singular Scrap Poetry” by Dan Chiasson (2016)
Dickinson’s unique place in literary history relies both on the form and the content of her poetry. Since few of Dickinson’s works made it to publication in her lifetime, her works are often subject to scholarly debate about representation on the page. Dan Chiasson’s New Yorker article explores how the fragmentary nature of Dickinson's writing connects to the envelopes and other ephemera she wrote on.
Listen to Poem
This reading of Dickinson’s poem captures the balance of levity and darkness that pervades the work. The reader’s accent—though not from New England—is likely close to how Dickinson would have sounded, and accentuates slant rhymes such as “seam” (Line 18), and “swim” (Line 20). The poem’s text also appears on-screen during the reading to make it easier to follow along while listening.
Related Titles
By Emily Dickinson
