A Bird came down the WalkVienna in Spring

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.

Poem by Emily Dikcinson
Images © by Merisi