The Secret Garden close reading
1 She chirped, and talked, and coaxed and he hopped, and
2 Flirted his tail and twittered. It was as if he were talking. His red
3 Wasitcoat was like satin and he puffed his tiny breast out and
4 Was so fine and so grand and so pretty that it was really as if he
5 Were showing her how important and like a human person a
6 Robin could be. Mistress Mary forgot that she had ever been
7 contrary in her life when he allowed her to draw closer and
8 closer to him, and bend down and talk and try to make some
9 thing like robin sounds.
10 Oh! To think that he should actually let her come as near to
11 him as that! He knew nothing in the world would make her
12 put out her hand toward him or startle him in the least tiniest
13 way. He knew it because he was a real person-only nicer than
14 any other person in the world. She was so happy that she
15 scarcely dared to breathe.
16 The flower-bed was not quite bare. It was bare of flowers because
17 Perennial plants had been cut down for their winter
18 Rest, but there were tall shrubs and low ones which grew together
19 At the back of the bed, and as the robin hopped about
20 Under them she saw him hop over a small pile of freshly turned
21 Up earth. He stopped on it to look for a worm. The earth had
22 Been turned up because a dog had been trying to dig up a mole
23 And he had scratched quite a deep hole.
Lines 1-2: Burnett creates a happy and busy moment in these two lines by using six different verbs. Mary “chirped, and talked, and coaxed” while the robin “hopped and flirted and twittered.” This passage has a poetic and lighthearted sound to it, which is exactly how Mary is feeling at the moment. Burnett then describes the robin’s actions to be as though he were talking. Mary is eager to make friends and have conversations, so it makes sense that the robin is personified.
Lines 3-5: This personification is developed further when Burnett describes the
2 Flirted his tail and twittered. It was as if he were talking. His red
3 Wasitcoat was like satin and he puffed his tiny breast out and
4 Was so fine and so grand and so pretty that it was really as if he
5 Were showing her how important and like a human person a
6 Robin could be. Mistress Mary forgot that she had ever been
7 contrary in her life when he allowed her to draw closer and
8 closer to him, and bend down and talk and try to make some
9 thing like robin sounds.
10 Oh! To think that he should actually let her come as near to
11 him as that! He knew nothing in the world would make her
12 put out her hand toward him or startle him in the least tiniest
13 way. He knew it because he was a real person-only nicer than
14 any other person in the world. She was so happy that she
15 scarcely dared to breathe.
16 The flower-bed was not quite bare. It was bare of flowers because
17 Perennial plants had been cut down for their winter
18 Rest, but there were tall shrubs and low ones which grew together
19 At the back of the bed, and as the robin hopped about
20 Under them she saw him hop over a small pile of freshly turned
21 Up earth. He stopped on it to look for a worm. The earth had
22 Been turned up because a dog had been trying to dig up a mole
23 And he had scratched quite a deep hole.
Lines 1-2: Burnett creates a happy and busy moment in these two lines by using six different verbs. Mary “chirped, and talked, and coaxed” while the robin “hopped and flirted and twittered.” This passage has a poetic and lighthearted sound to it, which is exactly how Mary is feeling at the moment. Burnett then describes the robin’s actions to be as though he were talking. Mary is eager to make friends and have conversations, so it makes sense that the robin is personified.
Lines 3-5: This personification is developed further when Burnett describes the