In The Garden

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.


In this poem, the author is approaching a bird. She is cautious as she approaches to not scare the bird away. The irony is the bird is just as scared as she is. The bird flies away. I think this poem is showing the beauty and danger in nature. There are two sides to the bird, as everything in nature. With everything, one must take caution as we appreciate the beauty of things.