" The crumb evidently symbolizes the feeding of hope. The author thus hints that she does not feed her hopes, emphasizing thus her pessimism. In another poem, a Bird Came down the Walk, the protagonist is a real bird. This time, Dickinson does not use the figure of the bird allegorically but rather as a symbol: the bird descends and kills a worm without being aware that somebody is watching it. The common element that links the poems is again the crumb: the poet offers the bird a crumb and is again refused, as it flies swiftly away. The theme however is very different: the bird refuses the crumb because it is satisfied in its own world, from which the poet is excluded. Thus, the two poems use the figure of the bird in very different ways, to represent different poetical themes.

Rip Van Winkle

Rip Van Winkle's wife is...
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