The POEMS

Under each bird name, the poems are arranged chronologically; first lines are also given below each poem title, as a potentially helpful spur to the memory. For untitled poems, the first line only is given instead (and identified as such via enclosing quotation marks). I would eventually like to gloss/annotate all of the texts herein--to make it a true "anthology"--but for now I've merely added comments immediately after a few of the entries, in parentheses, as they occurred to me. NOTE: These poetry texts are provided only "for purposes such as criticism, comment . . . teaching, scholarship, or research."

Oops--Let's try that BIRD Species/Type INDEX. . . .

NEW (5/08): I've divided this "POEMS" section into EIGHT separate pages, for quicker loading. . . .

A-C     D-G     H-L     M-O     P-R     S-T     U-Z     Misc.

ALBATROSS        [pictured: Southern Royal Albatross]

from THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER --Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Gr. Brit.)
      ". . . At length did cross an Albatross"
        (--wherein the Mariner learns to love "All things both great and small")

THE ALBATROSS --Charles Baudelaire (France)
      "Sometimes, to entertain themselves, the men of the crew"
        (--great metaphor of the poet as ungainly seabird)
 

BLACKBIRD    {see also "GRACKLE, COMMON"}        [pictured: Brewer's Blackbird]

THE MYTH OF BLACKBIRDS --Joy Harjo (U.S. [Native American])
      "The hours we counted precious were blackbirds . . . ."

BLACKBIRDS --Michael R. Collings (U.S.)
      "Splashes of pepper"

LOOKING AT THIRTEEN BLACKBIRDS CONFUSED BY
GLOBAL WARMING AND CAUGHT IN A SNOWSTORM IN
VERMILLION, SD, 27 NOVEMBER 2001 --Tom Gannon (U.S. [Native American])
      "dead"
 

BLACKBIRD, COMMON (Eurasian ~)

THE BLACKBIRD --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
      "The blackbird is a bonny bird"
 

BLACKBIRD, RED-WINGED        [photo: TCG]

RED-WING BLACKBIRD --William Carlos Williams (U.S.)
      "The wild red-wing black-"
        (--The poet of "The Red Wheelbarrow" describes a bird. . . .)

AFTER LORCA --Tom Gannon (U.S. [Native American])
      "the red-winged blackbird"

DEAD RED WING --Scott Edward Anderson (U.S.)
      "Of your famous epaulets"
 

BOBOLINK

ROBERT OF LINCOLN --William Cullen Bryant (U.S.)
      "Merrily swinging on brier and weed"
 

CANARY

THE CANARY --Ogden Nash (U.S.)
      "The song of canaries"
 

CHAFFINCH, COMMON

"THE SCHOOLBOYS IN THE MORNING SOON AS DREST" --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
        (--nest-robbing: to Clare, the most reprehensible of sins . . .)

BIRDS NESTS --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
      "Tis Spring warm glows the South"
 

CHICKADEE, BLACK-CAPPED

"SPIRIT COLOSSAL" --e. e. cummings (U.S.)
 

COCKATOO        [pictured: Sulphur-crested Cockatoo]

A MANIFESTATION --Mary Zoll (U.S.)
      "unashamedly eccentric Joan"
 

CORMORANT        [pictured: European Shag]

THE CORMORANT --Christopher Isherwood (Gr. Brit.)
      "The common cormorant or shag"

WASHING DAY --Rita Summers (Australia)
      "The cormorants"
 

CORNCRAKE ("Land Rail")

THE LANDRAIL --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
      "How sweet and pleasant grows the way"

SUMMER MOOD --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
      "I love at eventide to walk alone"
 

COWBIRD, BROWN-HEADED        [photo: TCG]

COWBIRDS --Marcella Remund (U.S.)
      "The cowbird hen dumps"
 

CROW, AMERICAN

DUST OF SNOW --Robert Frost (U.S.)
      "The way a crow"

IN THE PINE WOODS, CROW AND OWL --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "Great bumble. Sleek"

CROW'S ROSARY --Scott Edward Anderson (U.S.)
      "Hoboken again after so long gone . . . ."
        (--truly a "litany of loneliness" . . .)

MY HOUSE IS THE RED EARTH --Joy Harjo (U.S. [Native American])
      "My house is the red earth . . . ."

CROWS --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "It is January, and there are the crows"

CROW LAW --Linda Hogan (U.S. [Native American])
      "The temple where crow worships"
        (--a strange "ceremony," this . . .)

CROWS --Michael R. Collings (U.S.)
      "They wait for me,"
        (--a chilling treatment . . .)

CROW TESTAMENT --Sherman Alexie (U.S. [Native American])
      "Cain lifts Crow, that heavy black bird"
        (--crow as Native trickster?; and/but then . . .)

FROST'S CROW, REAPPEARING --Michael R. Collings (U.S.)
      "A wayward Crow"
        (--Frost redux . . .)

CROWS --Polly Brown (U.S.)
      "One morning a crow flew so close above my head,"
        (--Crows have rarely "spoken" better. . . .)

NO ONE TALKS TO CROWS --Lynn Samsel (U.S.)
      "No one I know talks to crows the way I do."
 

CROW, CARRION

THE TWA CORBIES --Anonymous (Gr. Brit.)
      "As I was walking all alane"
        (--two birds and a morbid mystery)

SONNET: THE CROW --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
      "How peaceable it seems for lonely men"

CROW AND THE BIRDS --Ted Hughes (Gr. Brit.)
      "When the eagle soared clear through a dawn distilling of emerald"
 

CUCKOO        [pictured: Lesser Cuckoo]

CUCKOO AND SKYLARK --Kyorai (Japan)
      "The cuckoo's cry"

THE CUCKOO --Shohaku (Japan)
      "A cuckoo's cry"

SUMMER EVENING --Shiki (Japan)
      "The moon begins to rise"
 

CUCKOO, COMMON (European ~)

CUCKOO SONG --Anonymous (Gr. Brit.)
      "Summer is y-comen in"

"WHEN DAISIES PIED AND VIOLETS BLUE" --William Shakespeare (Gr. Brit.)

TO THE CUCKOO --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "O blithe New-comer! I have heard"

TO THE CUCKOO --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "Not the whole warbling grove in concert heard"

EVENING VOLUNTARIES V --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "The linnet's warble, sinking towards a close,"

THE CUCKOO AT LAVERNA --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "List--'twas the Cuckoo.--O with what delight"

"REPEAT THAT, REPEAT" --Gerard Manley Hopkins (Gr. Brit.)
 

A-C     D-G     H-L     M-O     P-R     S-T     U-Z     Misc.

-=TO THE TOP

-=TO THE SPECIES INDEX

-=EXIT to COVER PAGE/CREDITS

-=NETIZEN NOTES (info on poem authors)