16 pages • 32 minutes read
Emily DickinsonA Bird, came down the Walk
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1891A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Dickinson and the Everyday
Emily Dickinson’s solitary lifestyle is as famous as her poetry. Though scholars debate the extent of Dickinson’s actual “reclusion,” many of her poems focus on life around her Amherst home. This focus on the domestic sphere is likely related to Dickinson’s care for her ailing mother and her increasing reluctance in the last 15 years of her life to engage actively with the outside world. While she maintained an active writing correspondence with some friends and family, she devoted herself mainly to both her domestic tasks and her poetry.
Unable (or unwilling) to travel far from her family home, Dickinson’s poetry explores the depth hidden in everyday objects and occurrences, particularly in the natural world. In many of her poems, including “A Bird, came down the Walk,” this exploration uncovers interactions between the sublime and the everyday (See: Themes). The speaker’s keen observations on the relationship between the bird and its natural surroundings and the poem’s affectionate portrayal of the bird itself also speak to Dickinson’s characteristic love for the natural world. Dickinson is noted for depicting animals, insects, and nature itself with sympathy and deep understanding, with some of her poetry even featuring anthropomorphism in humorous ways (e.g. “Bee! I’m expecting you!”).
Although for many years Dickinson’s poetry was regarded by some scholars as merely “domestic” in its themes and sensibilities, over time her poetry has accrued increasing recognition for the thematic complexity behind its seemingly simple forms and the sophisticated psychology that often infuse its subject matter. In uncovering the hidden significance in the everyday domestic and natural realms, Dickinson presents a world that is both intimate and familiar, yet continually surprising.
Literary Context: Romanticism and Transcendentalism
While Dickinson’s forms sometimes draw from Protestant traditions (See: Literary Devices), religious hymns are just one of her influences. Dickinson wrote during the era of the American Transcendentalist movement, and her poetry reflects both the spiritual preoccupations of the time and the influence of earlier Romantic poetry.
The English Romantics exercised a considerable influence on the Transcendentalists, especially in depictions of the natural world. The Romantics had rebelled against the formal and worldly conventions of 18th-century Neoclassicism, advocating instead for poetry written in more direct, arresting language that could speak to the political and social realities of the time. In William Wordsworth’s and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads (1798)—usually considered the founding text of English Romanticism—a new way of literary thought and expression was advanced, with the poets valorizing the natural world and the use of more common diction in verse. They also argued that poetry was tied to the poet’s unique subjectivity, reflecting the increasing interest in individualism at the time. The later American Transcendentalists retained something of this Romantic fascination with nature and its beauties; in Dickinson’s poetry there is a marked preoccupation with both the natural world and in expressing moods, thoughts, and experiences that appear individualized and intimate.
Both the English Romantics and American Transcendentalists are notable for offering explicit and implicit critiques of some of the dominant trends of their time. In the face of the Industrial Revolution, which rapidly accelerated over the course of the 19th century, these writers praised the natural world over technological progress and regarded the more homogenizing and dehumanizing aspects of economic and social development with suspicion. While Dickinson is not known for any outspoken political views in her poetry, her consistent elevation of the everyday and her depictions of natural beauty and simplicity reflect some of the thematic preoccupations of both Romanticism and American Transcendentalism.
Related Titles
By Emily Dickinson
