Poem by Emily Elizabeth Dickinson

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, splashless, as they swim.

1. What Soft, Cherubic Creatures
2. Desire
3. Lay This Laurel on the One
4. Is Bliss, Then, Such Abyss
5. Thanksgiving Day

Constance Naden In the Garden ("SWEET sounds, and scents, and colours join to woo")

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