Poems About Birds

In this beautiful collection of poems and paintings, Billy Collins, former U.S. poet laureate, joins with David Allen Sibley, America's foremost bird illustrator, to celebrate the winged creatures that have inspired so many poets to sing for centuries. From Catullus and Chaucer to Robert Browning and James Wright, poets have long treated birds as powerful metaphors for beauty, escape, transcendence, and divine expression. Here, in this substantial anthology, more than one hundred contemporary and classic poems are paired with close to sixty original, ornithologically precise illustrations. Part poetry collection, part field guide, part art book, Bright Wings presents verbal and visual interpretations of the natural world and reminds us of our intimate connection to the "bright wings" around us. Each in their own way, these poems and pictures honor the enchanting creatures that have been, and continue to be, longtime collaborators with the poet's and painter's art. Poet and bird pairings include: Wallace Stevens and the Blackbird; Emily Dickinson and the Robin; Marianne Moore and the Frigate Pelican; Thomas Hardy and the Goldfinch; Sylvia Plath and the Pheasant; John Updike and the Seagull; Walt Whitman and the Eagle; Billy Collins and the Sparrow.

Birds are the most obvious wild things we have around us. They are much watched and much loved, not least by poets. Bird poetry is as old as British poetry itself, and a remarkable number of poets have written poems about birds. Indeed some of the most famous poems in the language concern birds, from Keats's nightingale and Shelley's skylark to Yeats's swans and Hardy's thrush. In this wonderful anthology poet Simon Armitage and birdwatching enthusiast Tim Dee gather together the best of the past and the present, including those famous poems but also many overlooked gems. And in a fascinating divergence from standard anthology practice, the poems are organized according to ornithological classification, beginning with poems by Marianne Moore and David Wright on the ostrich and the emperor penguin and ending with Emily Dickinson and Wallace Stevens on the oriole and the blackbird.

More than twenty-five poems about both common and unusual birds.

A lyrical celebration of the fascinating ways birds move through the air. This collection of captivating poems celebrates the distinctive movements of twelve birds in flight and the special words associated with those movements, from geese that skein and puffins that wheel, to crows that mob and starlings that murmurate. The evocative language conveys the beauty of these animals and describes how each one makes its own unmistakable way in the world. An informational sidebar complements each poem, describing the reasons behind the bird’s unique way of flying. Children will be captivated by the magnificence of these birds in flight.

"Birds, Beasts and Flowers" is a collection of poetry by the English author D. H. Lawrence, first published in 1923. The poems in the collection include some of Lawrence's finest reflections on the "otherness" of the non-human world. The recollections on the topic were inspired by Lawrence's stay in San Gervasio near Florence in September 1920. The author managed to transfer the atmosphere of that place and time masterfully.

??Wallace Stevens? ?Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird? appeared originally in 1917 and was subsequently published in his first book, Harmonium, in 1923. In a letter, Stevens once wrote that ?this group of poems is not meant to be a collection of epigrams or of ideas, but of sensations.? If this is indeed the poet?s intent, the poem provides readers with no fewer than thirteen perspectives or observances about blackbirds, but in those ?thirteen ways? is the immeasurable culmination of sensations. Just as the poet?s imagination invites readers to discover the infinite mysteries of the world and how these unify us in unexpected ways, Corinne Jones? new visual interpretation of Stevens? poem invites us, again, to re-explore the multiplicity of observation and subsequent knowledge.????This new trade edition, a 10x10 reprint of the original fine arts book, juxtaposes Jones?s beautiful and sensual prints of blackbirds against Stevens?s poetic text. The result is that the life and power inherent in each artwork is increased wonderfully and vibrantly when taken as a whole.??.

The poems are complemented by full-colour illustrations drawn from the National Library's Pictures Collection, featuring the work of artists such as John Lewin, Lionel Lindsay, Lilian Medland, William T. Cooper and Betty TempleWatts.