* * The POEMS * *


An E-ANTHOLOGY of AVIAN POETRY


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    * *     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. . . .

  

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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.  

 
 

MAGPIE, EUROPEAN

* "AND YONDER BY THE CIRCLING STACK" --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)

* MAGPIES IN PICARDY --T. P. Cameron Wilson (Gr. Brit.)
      "The magpies in Picardy"
 

MARTIN, SAND

* SAND MARTIN --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
      "Thou hermit hunter of the lonely glen"
 

MEADOWLARK, WESTERN

* MEADOWLARK COUNTRY --Amy Clampitt (U.S.)
      "Speaking of the skylark in a New England classroom—"

* MEADOWLARK --Michael R. Collings (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "Golden-brown breast-feather"

* STURNELLA NEGLECTA (WESTERN MEADOWLARK) --Tom Gannon (U.S. [Native American])  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "ah, to be a meadowlark again"

* MEADOWLARK --David Wagoner (U.S.)
      "You may be walking on the edge of a road,"

* TRYING TO FALL ASLEEP IN SOUTH DAKOTA --Tom Gannon (U.S. [Native American])  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "when i close my eyes i see"
 

MERLIN

* PIGEON HAWK --Polly Brown (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "While we packed, a pigeon hawk"
 

MOCKINGBIRD, NORTHERN

* OUT OF THE CRADLE ENDLESSLY ROCKING --Walt Whitman (U.S.)
      "Out of the cradle endlessly rocking"

* REALITY II --Tom Gannon (U.S. [Native American])  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "hey, was that a robin"

* THE GIFT --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "I wanted to thank the mockingbird for the vigor of his song."

* MOCKINGBIRD --Michael R. Collings (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "The Mockingbird / precarious"

* CAT'S CLIMB --Michael R. Collings (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "After the cat's climb"
 

NIGHTHAWK, COMMON

* from SPRING IN NEW-ENGLAND --Carlos Wilcox (U.S.)
      "Each day are heard, and almost every hour,"
        (--portraits of a snipe and two goatsuckers: nighthawk and Whip-poor-will)

* THE NIGHT-HAWK --Charles G. D. Roberts (Canada)
      "WHEN frogs make merry the pools of May,"
 

NIGHTINGALE, COMMON

* "YOU SPOTTED SNAKES WITH DOUBLE TONGUE" --William Shakespeare (Gr. Brit.)

* SONNET I --John Milton (Gr. Brit.)
      "O Nightingale, that on yon bloomy Spray"

* THE NIGHTINGALE --Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Gr. Brit.)
      "No cloud, no relique of the sunken day"
        (--This poem includes the great line, "In Nature there is nothing melancholy.")

* "O NIGHTINGALE! THOU SURELY ART" --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)

* ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE --John Keats (Gr. Brit.)
      "My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains"
        (--the epitome of bird as projection of the poet's own preoccupations)

* PHILOMELA --Matthew Arnold (Gr. Brit.)
      "Hark! ah, the Nightingale!"

* from MEMBERS OF THE TRIBE --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      ". . . In the back fields,"
        (--a brief tribute to John Keats, and his nightingale)
 

NUTCRACKER, CLARK'S

* TWO BIRDS MEET LEWIS & CLARK (1805-1806) --Tom Gannon (U.S. [Native American])  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "They call me Lewis's Woodpecker."
 

NUTHATCH        [pictured: White-breasted Nuthatch (photo: TCG); ditto, audio]

* NUTHATCH --Michael R. Collings (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "I had thought the Nuthatch alien, exotic"
 

NUTHATCH, EURASIAN

* "IN SUMMER SHOWERS A SKREEKING NOISE IS HEARD" --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
 

ORIOLE, BALTIMORE

* "ONE OF THE ONES THAT MIDAS TOUCHED" --Emily Dickinson (U.S.)
 

OVENBIRD

* THE OVEN BIRD --Robert Frost (U.S.)
      "There is a singer everyone has heard"
 

OWL        [pictured: Tawny Owl; ditto, audio]

* "WHEN ICICLES HANG BY THE WALL" --William Shakespeare (Gr. Brit.)

* THERE WAS A BOY --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "There was a Boy; ye knew him well, ye cliffs"

* from THE WAGGONER --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      ". . . 'Yon screech-owl,' says the Sailor, turning"

* EVENING VOLUNTARIES VII --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "The leaves that rustled on this oak-crowned hill,"

* THE OWLS --Charles Baudelaire (France)
      "Within the shelter of black yews"

* THE OWL --Edward Thomas (Gr. Brit.)
      "Downhill I came, hungry, and yet not starved"

* QUESTIONING FACES --Robert Frost (U.S.)
      "The winter owl banked just in time to pass"

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

* NATURE --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "All night"
 

OWL, BARN

* BARN OWL --Gwen Harwood (Australia)
      "Daybreak: the household slept."
        (--I cried again just proofreading it!)

* PRAISE --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "Knee-deep"

* WHITE OWL FLIES INTO AND OUT OF THE FIELD --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "Coming down"
 

OWL, EASTERN SCREECH-

* LITTLE OWL WHO LIVES IN THE ORCHARD --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "His beak could open a bottle,"
 

OWL, GREAT HORNED

* SPIRIT HOME --Lynn Samsel (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "In the dream a Great Horned Owl"

* GREAT HORNED OWLS --Tom Gannon (U.S. [Native American])  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "Whose woods these are, I'm sure I know—"
 

OWL, SNOWY

* SNOWY OWL NEAR OCEAN SHORES --Duane Niatum (U.S. [Native American])
      "sits on a stump in an abandoned farmer's field,"

* SPIRIT HOME --Lynn Samsel (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "In the dream a Great Horned Owl"
 

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


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* -=TO THE TOP

* -=TO THE SPECIES INDEX

* -=EXIT to COVER PAGE/CREDITS

* -=NETIZEN NOTES (info on  *EXCLUSIVE* poem authors)


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