Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets doubt the maw-crammed beast?

In these compressed, rhetorical questions, Browning contrasts human anxiety with the apparent untroubled contentment of animals that have just satisfied their immediate needs. A “crop-full bird” and a “maw-crammed beast” suggest creatures whose hunger is met; they do not “care” or “doubt” in the way humans do. The line implies that worry and fretting are not inevitable features of existence but products of self-consciousness—especially the human tendency to project into the future, second-guess, and moralize. Browning often uses such comparisons to challenge spiritual or existential unease: if nature can rest in sufficiency, perhaps people, too, might learn a steadier trust or acceptance rather than compulsive doubt.