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.

SANDPIPER        [pictured: Spotted Sandpiper]

THE SANDPIPER --Celia Thaxter (U.S.)
      "Across the narrow beach we flit"
 

SHRIKE, LOGGERHEAD

THE SHRIKE --Dan Tompsett (U.S.)
      "Bushtit bleeds from rusty briar"
        (--Even some passerines are "killers"!)
 

SKYLARK, EURASIAN

"HARK, HARK! THE LARK AT HEAVEN'S GATE SINGS" --William Shakespeare (Gr. Brit.)

TO A SKY-LARK --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "Up with me! up with me into the clouds!"

TO A SKYLARK --Percy Bysshe Shelley (Gr. Brit.)
      "Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!"

TO A SKYLARK --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "Ethereal minstrel! pilgrim of the sky!"

A MORNING EXERCISE --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "Fancy, who leads the pastimes of the glad,"
 

SKYLARK, JAPANESE

IN A WIDE WASTELAND --Basho (Japan)
      "On the moor: from things"

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

"ON HOW TO SING" --Shiki (Japan)
 

SNIPE, COMMON

TO THE SNIPE --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
      "Lover of swamps"
        (--To all those who've played the "snipe-hunting" game on camping trips and assumed the purported goal to be sheer chimera: yes, there IS a real bird by that name!)
 

SPARROW        [pictured: Chipping Sparrow; ditto, audio]

from THE BOOK OF PHILIP SPARROW --John Skelton (Gr. Brit.)
      ". . . For the soul of Philip Sparrow"

"COME! WITH EACH OTHER" --Issa (Japan)

THE SPARROW'S NEST --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "Behold, within the leafy shade,"

"A SPARROW TOOK A SLICE OF TWIG" --Emily Dickinson (U.S.)

SOME BROWN SPARROWS --Bruce Fearing (U.S.)
      "Some brown sparrows who live"

SPARROW IN WINTER --Shinkichi Takahashi (Japan)
      "Breastdown fluttering in the breeze"

SPARROWS --Michael R. Collings (U.S.)
      "Two sparrows, on a power line"

GREY --Michael R. Collings (U.S.)
      "A scintillance of grey sparrows"
 

SPARROW, BREWER'S

[BREWER'S SPARROW] --Jim Bradley (U.S.)
      "When on the plains"
        (--light verse from an ornithologist)
 

SPARROW, HOUSE        [photo: TCG]

from "THE SINKEN SUN IS TAKIN LEAVE" --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
        (--for those who "Neer see the good which sparrows do" . . .)

SPARROW --Norman MacCaig (Gr. Brit.)
      "He's no artist.quot;
        (--the "lowly" sparrow as Marxist icon?!)

PASSER DOMESTICUS --Tom Gannon (U.S. [Native American])
      "skirting the Whitmanic vision"

THE POET READS . . . --Tom Gannon (U.S. [Native American])
      "hands outstretched above the podium"
 

SPARROW, SEASIDE

ELEGY FOR THE DUSKY SEASIDE SPARROW --Michael Rothenberg (U.S.)
      "Take note:"
        (--not your ordinary Elton John tribute . . .)
 

STARLING, EUROPEAN

FOUR POEMS FOR A CHILD SON --Simon J. Ortiz (U.S. [Native American])
      "It has to do with full moments"

AVIAN NIGHTS --Sherman Alexie (U.S. [Native American])
      "Starlings have invaded our home and filled"
        (--human parents meet starling parents in a wonderfully moving poem . . .)
 

STORK        [pictured: White Stork (photo, TCG)]

STORK --Ellen Bryant Voigt (U.S.)
      "There are seventeen species of stork."
 

SWALLOW        [pictured: Barn Swallow]

ITYLUS --Algernon Charles Swinburne (Gr. Brit.)
      "Swallow, my sister, O sister swallow"
 

SWAN        [pictured: Trumpeter Swan]

from TO CHARLES COWDEN CLARKE --John Keats (Gr. Brit.)
      "Oft have you seen a swan superbly frowning"

"I HEARD (ALAS! 'TWAS ONLY IN A DREAM)" --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)

LEDA AND THE SWAN --William Butler Yeats (Gr. Brit.)
      "A sudden blow: the great wings beating still"
 

SWAN, MUTE    {see also "SWAN," above}

from AN EVENING WALK --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "Now, while the solemn evening shadows sail,"

from HOME AT GRASMERE --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      ". . . But two are missing--two, a lonely pair"

THE WILD SWANS AT COOLE --William Butler Yeats (Gr. Brit.)
      "The trees are in their autumn beauty"
 

TANAGER, WESTERN

ALL THIS INSIDE ME --Richard Denner (U.S.)
      "I enter the quiet"
 

TERN        [pictured: Common Tern]

THE TERNS --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "The birds shrug off"
 

THRUSH        [pictured: Wood Thrush]

THE REVERIE OF POOR SUSAN --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "At the corner of Wood Street, when daylight appears,"

"HARK, 'TIS THE THRUSH, UNDAUNTED, UNDEPREST" --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)

COME IN --Robert Frost (U.S.)
      "As I came to the edge of the woods"
 

THRUSH, HERMIT

from WHEN LILACS LAST IN THE DOORYARD BLOOM'D --Walt Whitman (U.S.)
      ". . . In the swamp, in secluded recesses"
 

THRUSH, SONG    {see also "THRUSH," above}

THE TABLES TURNED --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books"
        (--W.'s philosophy of "Nature" in a nutshell)

THE THROSTLE --Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Gr. Brit.)
      "'Summer is coming, summer is coming'"

THE DARKLING THRUSH --Thomas Hardy (Gr. Brit.)
      "I leant upon a coppice gate"
        (--turn-of-the-century pessimism, or what?!)
 

TIT, BLUE

from THE KITTEN AND THE FALLING LEAVES --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      ". . . Where is he, that giddy Sprite,"
 

TURKEY, WILD

"THE TURKEYS WADE THE CLOSE TO CATCH THE BEES" --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)

PLOUGHING ON SUNDAY --Wallace Stevens (U.S.)
      "The white cock's tail"

LIGHT COMES IN TURKEY COUNTRY --Jimmy Carter (U.S.)
      "I know the forest on my farm"

WILD TURKEY IN MASSENA, N.Y. --Maurice Kenny (U.S. [Native American])
      "Found staggering"
        (My students want to read the turkey as the "Native" [ugh!]. . . .)
 

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-=NETIZEN NOTES (info on poem authors)