In her poem "A Bird came down the Walk—" Emily Dickinson employs a markedly contemplative tone. In the first stanza, Dickinson specifies that the speaker is a detached onlooker to the actions of the text: "He did not know I saw," she writes in reference to the titular bird. Free from the gaze of the bird, the speaker proceeds to ponder and analyze its every move.

He glanced with rapid eyes,
That hurried all abroad -
They looked like frightened Beads, I thought.

Lines such as this contribute to the contemplative tone of the piece, in which the reader is invited along with the speaker to marvel at the dramatic intricacies of nature.

This tone creates a mood that is both peaceful and philosophical. On one hand, the speaker's detached, descriptive observations of the bird's actions lend themselves to a meditative atmosphere that pervades the text. Towards the end of the poem, however, the speaker begins to weave together philosophical threads tying the natural world to our human one.

And he unrolled his feathers,
and rowed him softer Home -

Than Oars divide the Ocean.

This comparison of the natural movement of a bird to the movement of a rowboat creates a philosophical mood in which the reader is encouraged to contemplate humanity's ability to coexist with the natural world.