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. . . .

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General/Miscellaneous "Bird Poems"        [(sad & pathetic museum) photo: TCG]

Pre-18th Century:

INSOMNIA --Abu 'Amir ibn al-Hammarah (Andalusia)
      "When the bird of sleep"

from THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES --Geoffrey Chaucer (Gr. Brit.)
      ". . . On every bow the foules herde I synge"

"THE OUSEL COCK SO BLACK OF HUE" --William Shakespeare (Gr. Brit.)

18th- & 19th Century:

SPRING GROVE --Ranko (Japan)
      "The grove in spring"

from THE TASK --William Cowper (Gr. Brit.)
      ". . . Nature inanimate employs sweet sounds,"

LINES WRITTEN IN EARLY SPRING --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "I heard a thousand blended notes,"

EVENING VOLUNTARIES VIII --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "THE sun has long been set,"

from RESOLUTION AND INDEPENDENCE --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "There was a roaring in the wind all night;"

THE SAILOR'S MOTHER --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "One morning (raw it was and wet--"
        (--Wordsworth knows why the caged bird sings?)

from HOME AT GRASMERE --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      ". . . But the gates of Spring"

from HOME AT GRASMERE --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      ". . . Friends shall I have at dawn, blackbird and thrush"

from AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE --William Blake (Gr. Brit.)
      ". . . A Robin Red breast in a Cage"

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)

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

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

THE WREN --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
      "Why is the cuckoos melody preferred"

"THE WILD DUCK STARTLES LIKE A SUDDEN THOUGHT" --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
        (--later given the editorial title "Autumn Birds")

BIRDS: WHY ARE YE SILENT? --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
      "Why are ye silent"

"IN THE HEDGE I PASS A LITTLE NEST" --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)

20th Century:

JOHN JAMES AUDUBON --Stephen Vincent Benét (U.S.)
      "Some men live for warlike deeds"

QUARTIER LIBRE --Jacques Prévert (France)
      "I put my cap in the cage"
        (--a neo-surrealist's irreverence)

MIGRATION OF BIRDS --Gary Snyder U.S.
      "It started just now with a hummingbird"

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

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

BIRD POEM --Tom Gannon (U.S. [Native American])
      "in the high black hills of south dakota"

SINGAPORE --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "In Singapore, in the airport,"
        (--This poem includes the memorable line, "A poem should always have birds in it.")

FEEDING THE BIRDS --Robert Cording (U.S.)
      "I wanted to do something"
        (--Bird-hawk near a feeder: the war continues. . . .)

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

IN FAVOR OF BIRDS --Tom Gannon (U.S. [Native American])
      "one must certainly welcome"

DOVE OR GULL OR CROW --Michael R. Collings (U.S.)
      "certainly not dove"
        (--A dilemma every birder has experienced!)

PLIGHT OF THE AUSPEX --Keith Allen Daniels (U.S.)
      "'Some poison has perturbed the flight of birds'"
        (--an augur gets an answer from "out of the blue"!)

UNKNOWN BIRD --W.S. Merwin (U.S.) [remote link: The Atlantic Online]
      "Out of the dry days"

21st Century:

FOR THE BIRDS: A LIMERICK --Tom Gannon (U.S. [Native American])
      "There once was a man in Nebraska"
        (--pretty much a summary statement of my >400-pp. book manuscript on avian representations in literature . . .)

IROQUOIS BIRD MAN --Lynn Samsel (U.S.)
      "The bird man was born into an Iroquois longhouse"
 

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-=NETIZEN NOTES (info on poem authors)