The poem deals, among other things, with the relationship between nature and.
At the start the poet is just observing the bird ("He did not know I saw").
She does not interfere, but she is not passive, as her observations are quite detailed e.g. noticing the Beetle. She is a presence in the poem from line 2, but we don't find out much about her as the focus is on the bird. The human interference, finally, in line 14 ("I offered him a crumb") disturbs the scene - the bird flies away ("he unrolled his feathers"). Yet this is not necessarily or entirely seen as a bad thing - it is at this stage, when the bird takes off that her writing takes off into metaphor ("Too silver for a seam"). It is as if the whole scene has been transformed, and her writing reflects that. Is she suggesting that good can and does come from human interference in nature e.g. civilization? Note the way the bird is presented - beautiful in its appearance ("Velvet Head") and flight ("rowed him softer home"), courteous (or is it fear?) to the Beetle, but predatory, even savage to the worm ("ate the fellow, raw"), again suggesting the need for a civilizing influence on nature. Apart from the bird and the beetle, butterflies are also mentioned, but this is more of a metaphor, but a soft metaphor taken from nature ("plashless as they swim"). .
Imagery:.
The bird's eyes are compared to "frightened beads". The bird's flight is compared to rowing ("rowed him softer home"), and this image is sustained into the next verse – "Oars divide the Ocean", another image that suggests the bird doesn't disturb its environment as it flies – no more than you see the mark an oar makes in silvery water. The unobtrusive flight of the bird is also compared to butterflies leaping into water, swimming noiselessly ("plashless").
