Emily Dickinson Nature

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Dickinson had a very ambivalent attitude towards nature and she expressed her differing feelings in three of her poems. In “A bird came down the Walk,” she saw a bird as both predator and prey. “A narrow Fellow in the Grass” also discusses an animal, this time a snake, as both a gentle creature and a vicious beast. “Apparently with no surprise” talks about the cruelty in life, and how the world keeps turning as though nothing happened. “A bird came down the Walk” first describes the predatory nature of the bird and then the frightful innocence. The narrator, presumably Dickinson herself, observes nature’s swiftly changing viewpoints. A small bird starts off as a predator, but then casually carries on with the rest of its day. He bit …show more content…
It innocently hops around, but soon Dickinson sees fear in its eyes. The bird is not just a predatory creature; it too is fearful of being another’s meal. 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. (9-13)
Dickinson’s style of writing beautifully captures the life of an ordinary animal. It shows that everything in nature can be both prey and predatory. That is how the world works; an endless cycle of tragedy, normality, and victory. It’s the circle of life. In her second poem, “A narrow Fellow in the Grass,” Emily Dickinson takes a snake, a feared reptile, and explores the feeling of fear that a young boy experiences upon encountering it. She illustrates the uneasiness of that first indication that a snake is near. The Grass divides as with a Comb - A spotted Shaft is seen, (5-6) This creature is not written in a pleasant light. The barefooted boy passed by the snake, thinking it was a whip lash; but he grabbed for it, and it slithered away. Her objective, it seems, was to cause the reader to feel the same fear and uneasiness that the boy felt himself. But never met this Fellow Attended or alone Without a tighter
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