The bird is the poem’s central symbol, representing the natural world in both its prosaic elements and in its beauties. The bird’s instinctive behavior makes it clear that it is an animal, one that can bite a worm “in halves” and then eat “the fellow, raw” (Lines 3-4) without much ado. Nevertheless, the bird also behaves in ways that are graceful and sometimes nearly mimic human behavior, as in the way it “came down the Walk” (Line 1) at the poem’s opening, as if using the manmade path the way a human would. In a similar manner, it “hopped sidewise to the Wall / To let a Beetle pass” (Lines 7-8) as if behaving with exaggerated courtesy. Finally, the bird’s flight back “Home” with motions “softer [. . .] / Than Oars divide the Ocean” (Lines 16-17) transform the bird into a symbol of nature’s grace and majesty, inspiring a moment of the sublime for the poem’s speaker.

The human-animal connection forms a central motif in the poem. The speaker is a foil, or contrasting character, to the bird. How the speaker in this poem sees the natural world reveals the direct role humans can play in the natural world and their part within it.