Bird Songs

Bird Songs is a lyrical song cycle for voice and piano setting three poems by Emily Dickinson: I Have a Bird in Spring, Hope is the Thing with Feathers, and A Bird Came Down the Walk. Each song captures a distinct moment of encounter between humanity and the natural world, using graceful vocal lines and vivid text painting in the piano to reflect the delicacy, resilience, and mystery of birds.

From the tender longing of I Have a Bird in Spring, to the quiet strength of Hope, to the startling intimacy of A Bird Came Down the Walk, the cycle traces a poetic and musical arc of observation, emotion, and reverence. Bird Songs invites listeners to experience nature not just as backdrop, but as messenger — fragile, fearless, and profoundly connected to the human soul.

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I. A Bird Came Down the Walk

A Bird Came Down the Walk

A Bird, came down the Walk -

He did not know I saw -

He bit an Angle Worm in halves

And ate the fellow, raw,

And then, he drank a Dew

From a convenient Grass -

And then hopped sidewise to the Wall

To let a Beetle pass -

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,

I offered him a Crumb,

And he unrolled his feathers,

And rowed him softer Home -

Than Oars divide the Ocean,

Too silver for a seam,

Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon,

Leap, plashless as they swim.

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II. I Have a Bird in Spring

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.

Yet do I not repine

Knowing that Bird of mine

Though flown --

Learneth beyond the sea

Melody new for me

And will return.

Fast is a safer hand

Held in a truer Land

Are mine --

And though they now depart,

Tell I my doubting heart

They're thine.

In a serener Bright,

In a more golden light

I see

Each little doubt and fear,

Each little discord here

Removed.

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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III. Hope is the Thing with Feathers

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

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