101 Poems, Number 38

Favorite Poems Throughout My Life

38: “A Bird Came Down the Walk,” 1862, by Emily Dickinson (1830–86)

A college class—my very first*

(Among the best—no, not the worst).

Yes, this was English 101–

I learned a lot ere it was done.

One summer’s day we read these lines

From Dickinson (I knew her signs:

So short and pithy, odd at times—

With sometimes weird, confusing rhymes.)

“A Bird” was fairly clear to read—

Though something not to do with speed.

But then came “plashless”—What is that?

My mind did flip-flops—then ker-splat!

My brain just fluttered on the floor—

I couldn’t take it anymore.

But years would pass—and I would grow—

And soon enough I’d learn—I’d know—

That Dickinson? One of the best.

And I went on to read the rest

Or all her splendid, magic verse—

Those lines so true, so pure, so terse.

*English 101; Dr. Charles F. McKinley; Summer Session 1, 1962

*And I would find plash (minus the less) again in The Taming of the Shrew when I taught it:

LUCENTIO: for I have Pisa left

And am to Padua come, as he that leaves

A shallow plash to plunge him in the deep

And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst (1.1).

And then I had the thrill of seeing my son deliver those lines as Lucentio, late 1980s, in his high school production of Shrew.

Link to poem.