“I have a Bird in spring” Introduction

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“I have a Bird in spring” Summary

“I have a Bird in spring” Themes

• 

  Separation and Faith

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• 

  Inspiration and Creativity

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “I have a Bird in spring”

• Lines 1-6

  I have a Bird in spring
  Which for myself doth sing—
  The spring decoys.
  And as the summer nears—
  And as the Rose appears,
  Robin is gone.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-12

  Yet do I not repine
  Knowing that Bird of mine
  Though flown—
  Learneth beyond the sea
  Melody new for me
  And will return.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-18

  Fast in a safer hand
  Held in a truer Land 
  Are mine—
  And though they now depart
  Tell I my doubting heart
  They're thine.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 19-24

  In a serener Bright,
  In a more golden light
  I see
  Each little doubt and fear,
  Each little discord here
  Removed.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-30

  Then will I not repine,
  Knowing that Bird of mine
  Though flown
  Shall in a distant tree
  Bright melody for me
  Return.

  

  

  

  

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“I have a Bird in spring” Symbols

• 

  The Bird

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“I have a Bird in spring” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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“I have a Bird in spring” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Decoys
• Repine
• Learneth
• Fast
• Thine
• Discord

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “I have a Bird in spring”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“I have a Bird in spring” Speaker

“I have a Bird in spring” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “I have a Bird in spring”

More “I have a Bird in spring” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Dickinson Museum — Find a trove of information about Dickinson's life and work at the Dickinson Museum.

  • Dickinson's Legacy — Learn how Dickinson's secret poetry was discovered and preserved.

  • The Poem in Dickinson's Hand — See the original manuscript of the poem, taken from a letter Dickinson wrote to her beloved friend Susan Gilbert when she married Dickinson's brother.

  • Dickinson and Gilbert — Learn more about the intense relationship between Dickinson and Susan Gilbert, the woman for whom this poem was written.

  • The Poem Set to Music — Listen to a pleasantly eerie choral arrangement of the poem.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Emily Dickinson

  • A Bird, came down the Walk

  • After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

  • A Light exists in Spring

  • A Murmur in the Trees—to note—

  • A narrow Fellow in the Grass

  • An awful Tempest mashed the air—

  • As imperceptibly as grief

  • A still—Volcano—Life—

  • A Word dropped careless on a Page

  • Because I could not stop for Death —

  • Before I got my eye put out

  • Fame is a fickle food

  • Hope is the thing with feathers

  • I cannot live with You –

  • I cautious, scanned my little life

  • I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—

  • I did not reach Thee

  • I died for Beauty—but was scarce

  • I dreaded that first Robin, so

  • I dwell in Possibility –

  • I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

  • If I can stop one heart from breaking

  • I had been hungry, all the Years

  • I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

  • I like a look of Agony

  • I like to see it lap the Miles

  • I measure every Grief I meet

  • I’m Nobody! Who are you?

  • I started Early — Took my Dog —

  • I taste a liquor never brewed

  • It was not Death, for I stood up

  • I—Years—had been—from Home—

  • Like Rain it sounded till it curved

  • Much Madness is divinest Sense -

  • My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun

  • Nature is what we see

  • One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted

  • Publication — is the Auction

  • Safe in their Alabaster Chambers

  • Shipwreck

  • Success is counted sweetest

  • Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

  • The Brain—is wider than the Sky—

  • The Bustle in a House

  • The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants

  • There came a Wind like a Bugle

  • There is no Frigate like a Book

  • There's a certain Slant of light

  • There's been a Death, in the Opposite House

  • The saddest noise, the sweetest noise

  • The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean

  • The Soul has bandaged moments

  • The Soul selects her own Society

  • The Wind – tapped like a tired Man –

  • They shut me up in Prose –

  • This is my letter to the world

  • This World is not Conclusion

  • 'Twas the old—road—through pain—

  • We grow accustomed to the Dark

  • What mystery pervades a well!

  • Whose cheek is this?

  • Wild nights - Wild nights!