Lyric Poem · Nature
A Bird came down the Walk
by Emily Dickinson · 1891
1A BIRD came down the walk:
2He did not know I saw;
3He bit an angle-worm in halves
4And ate the fellow, raw.
5And then he drank a dew
6From a convenient grass,
7And then hopped sidewise to the wall
8To let a beetle pass.
9He glanced with rapid eyes
10That hurried all abroad,—
11They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
12He stirred his velvet head
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“A Bird came down the Walk” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/a-bird-came-down-the-walk
Quick facts
- Poem
- A Bird came down the Walk
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Published
- 1891
- Length
- 20 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Nature
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 20 lines · 5 quatrains
- End rhyme
- No regular perfect end rhyme. The poem may still be using slant rhyme, assonance, or internal echo, which this check does not score.
- Line length
- Mostly 6-syllable lines (trimeter length).
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the cited edition and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Emily Dickinson1830–1886
- Source record
- WikisourceA Bird came down the Walk by emily-dickinson, Wikisource transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1891
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 b74ccdbd1a24cb9a…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.