“Aught” means “anything” in this context while “save” means “but.” In these two lines, the speaker claims that she cannot be anything but a bird with a broken wing. Again, the speaker reduces herself to her anxieties and pain rather than asserting an identity.
The speaker refers to herself as a “thing,” or an object that one need not, cannot, or does not wish to give a specific name to. In calling herself a “startled thing,” she dehumanizes herself. She is no longer a person but reduced to an object without a name. In adding the adjective “startled” to this identity, the speaker suggests that she is weak and fearful as well. In this stanza, she reduces herself to only her fear.
