Thread: Birds

Can anyone point me in the direction of any pieces involving birds (with significant roles)?

The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe would be an example.

Thanks!

Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge (its bloody bleedin' albatross flavored!)
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Emily Dickinson's A Bird Came Down
A bird came down the walk

To a Skylark - Shelley (didn't bother with a link for this one. I mean, Shelley on birds, you can pretty much guess.)

Here's something a little more contemporary I quite enjoyed... A Murder Of Crows
Murder of Crows (poem) by Peter J. Kautsky on AuthorsDen

Ted Hughes and Crow

Crow's Theology

Crow realized God loved him --
Otherwise, he would have dropped dead.
So that was proved.
Crow reclined, marvelling, on his heart-beat.

And he realized that God spoke Crow --
Just existing was His revelation.

But what
Loved the stones and spoke stone?
They seemed to exist too.
And what spoke that strange silence
After his clamour of caws faded?

And what loved the shot-pellets
That dribbled from those strung up mummifying crows?
What spoke the silence of lead?

Crow realized there were two Gods --

One of them much bigger than the other
Loving his enemies
And having all the weapons.

Dust of Snow - Robert Frost

This is probably one of my favourite poems, I learnt it off by heart when I was about three or four XD

The way a crow shook down on me
The dust of snow from a hemlock tree
Has given my heart a change of mood
And saved some part of a day i had rued

Wow! Beautiful everyone! God, thanks SO much! Really. I've recently realized that I tend to use birds as major characters in my stories, and I've recently fallen in love with idea of birds that really 'know what's goin' on'. It's really opened my eyes in terms of how I write, and has been a major turning point in my on going refining of my style.

Thanks for posting, and as always, PLEASE SEND MORE!!! I am really enjoying these pieces.

- James Antony, that is definitely one of my new favorite poems. It perfectly captures exactly what I try to write into my birds' characters.

- Mann, as always, thanks so much for seemingly being all over my posts, and those poems you sent were beautiful.

- Ash, wonderful! I really liked this, and would love to check out more. These poems that are here are a good little summarizing bundle of exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

you're welcome and yes, i can sympathise with your bird fixation, i've never got over mine

Ted Hughes wrote a whole book called ...

Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow

you can get most of the poems online through a search

... my son has it in his room on his dressing table and picks it up from time to time and gives us all a rendition, he loves to show off, but he does do a very good likeness of crow, it's quite dark at times, anyway, you have fun exploring all those wonderful birds out there ...

all my best and cheers, ash somers *bow*

Hey thanks, Mugician, it's great to have helped out and keep the dream of birds alive XD
My god, Robert Frost is such an amazing poet though
His poems, short yet sweet, seem to encapsulate raw emotion
Anyways, best of luck to you, keep writing

The jackdaw of rheims from the Ingoldsby legends by R H Barham

Caged birds by Maya Angelou

Thanks!

You may wish to check the punctuation from the original version as it may affect rhythm; am unsure of that as I have produced the following poem by Keats from memory.

The Dove by John Keats

I had a dove and the sweet dove died
And I have thought it died for grieving
Oh what could it grieve for
It's feet were tied with silken threads
Of my own hands weaving
Sweet little red feet why should you die?
Why should you leave me, sweet bird, why?
You lived alone in the forest trees
Why pretty thing, would you not live with me?
I kissed you oft and gave you white peas
Why not live sweetly as in the green trees?

Hi,

Here is a version I found on the internet with better punctuation. Clickling on the poet's name takes you to the website I got it from.

The Dove

John Keats

I had a dove, and the sweet dove died;
And I have thought it died of grieving:
Oh, what could it grieve for? its feet were tied
With a silken thread of my own hands’ weaving.
Sweet little red feet! Why should you die—
Why would you leave me, sweet bird! why?
You lived alone in the forest tree;
Why, pretty thing! would you not live with me?
I kiss’d you oft and gave you white peas;
Why not live sweetly, as in the green trees?


I was probably 9 or 10 when I came across this poem-- in school. My teacher explained that the Dove died becaused it wanted to be free. In my mind I imagined this white bird crying in its cage with its feet tied by 'silken threads'. I felt so sorry for it.

Several years ago, I came acros this poem again. I had just lost a pregnancy, a baby girl. Can you guess who I felt sorry for?

This is the beauty of poetry-- its many layers come alive at different stages and phases of life.

Thomas Hardy used bird imagery often. My favourite of his is The Blinded Bird Moments of Vision by Thomas Hardy: The Blinded Bird

Blinded ere yet a-wing
By the red-hot needle thou,
I stand and wonder how
So zestfully thou canst sing!


He also wrote The Darkling Thrush:
[minstrels] The Darkling Thrush -- Thomas Hardy

Never Again would Birds' Song be the Same

He would declare and could himself believe
That the birds there in all the garden round
From having heard the daylong voice of Eve
Had added to their own an oversound,
Her tone of meaning but without the words.
Admittedly an eloquence so soft
Could only have had an influence on birds
When call or laughter carried it aloft.
Be that as may be, she was in their song.
Moreover her voice upon their voices crossed
Had now persisted in the woods so long
That probably it never would be lost.
Never again would birds' song be the same.
And to do that to birds was why she came.

- Robert Frost

I had real difficulty understanding this one at first. It was on a list for possible exam questions - and I had this nagging feeling that they would ask it. They did - luckily I kind of figured it out by then.