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.
Emily Dickinson lived all her life in Amherst Massachusetts. The family house, the Homestead is now part of the Emily Dickinson Musuem, along with its neighbour, the Evergreens, built for Emily's brother Austin and his family.
Poetry Atlas has many other poems about Massachusetts.
Garden, Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst, Massachussetts
Creative Commons image by Emily.