In this Emily Dickinson poem a speaker’s seemingly everyday encounter with a bird leads to thoughts about the frightening side of nature—as well as nature’s beauty. Under this speaker’s watchful eye, the bird is at once a merciless predator, an anxious and vulnerable animal, and a lovely spark of life.

This setting tries to illustrate all the facets of the poem with an impressionistic language with tints of folk music.

It was written in April 2017 and revised (and slightly lengthened) in 2019.

Duration: ca. 3′