"A Bird, came down the Walk" begins with an incident that seems both normal and strange. The speaker watches (apparently hidden) as a bird hops down a small walkway. This seems like a straightforward, unremarkable thing to witness, but the way the speaker describes it makes it seem like something more is going on here.
For example, consider the way the speaker describes the bird's movements. It's a little strange to say that a bird "came down the Walk," which makes it sound like the bird is a neighbor coming over for a casual chat. This impression only intensifies when the speaker calls the bird "he," thoroughly personifying this little animal.
But if the bird is a neighborly visitor, it's strange that the speaker would spy on him in this way. The speaker seems torn between viewing the bird as a friendly, human-like acquaintance and an odd, unfamiliar creature. These first two lines therefore establish a feeling of stealth and even a hint of anxiety on the speaker's behalf. At the same time, though, the reader might also find this scene pretty familiar—who hasn't sat still and quiet to watch a bird hop around without scaring it away?
The combination of neighborliness and anxiety that these first two lines set up actually forms the foundation for the poem's entire tone, which features a feeling of tension even though the poem describes a very simple, everyday occurrence. The bird is a little like a human, but it's also so unlike a human that the sight of a real human might scare it away. This highlights the exact kind of tension and contradiction that the rest of the poem will explore.
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