Hark! A Poem About a Bird

 
A white gull with gray on the outer edges of his wing soars against a blue sky.

Iceland Gull. Stony Island Landfills, January 6, 2022. Photo by Walter Marcisz.

words by Lauren Kostas

Birds have been celebrated, described, and invoked in poetry for centuries. One of the earliest examples is Geoffrey Chaucer’s Parliament of Fowls, a poem written about 700 years ago describing a group of birds gathered on St. Valentine’s Day to choose mates for the year. Since then, birds have served as inspiration, harbingers, symbols, and metaphors in countless poems.

In honor of National Poetry Month we’ve gathered a just few poems featuring birds and invite you to try your hand at matching the verse describing a bird to the poem and poet. Answers are below.

Verse

 A.
There is a singer everyone has heard,
Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird
Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.

B.
known for its stealth, shier
than a cloud, but won’t fly or float away
when it’s scared, stands there thinking maybe
it’s invisible though it’s not—tall, gray,
straight as a pole among the cloudy reeds.

C.
Quiscalus quiscula:
this name sounds like a spell which, after its casting,
will make things crumble into a complement
of unanswerable questions.

D.
Chunky and noisy,
but with stars in their black feathers,
they spring from the telephone wire
and instantly
they are acrobats
in the freezing wind.

E.
On sedge, winter-bit but erect, on old cattails, they swing.
Throats throb, your field glasses say, as they cling and sing—
If singing is what you call that rusty, gut-grabbing cry
That calls on life to be lived gladly, gladly.

F.
I watched it lift
—it’s heavy, a bird more burdened
than some, and not all grace—
trailing calls like the beads of a rosary; a string of clicks in air

G.
Mack the Knife waits in his eyes,
yet he is generous and brings his young
eleven mice four bullheads
thirteen grouse two eels
three rabbits and a woodcock

H.
His fluffy chest seems filled
With an inexpensive taxidermist’s material
Rather lumpily inserted. The legs,
Unbent, are childish crayon strokes

Poems

  1. “Frequently Asked Questions: 10” (Camille T. Dungy)

  2. “Seagulls” (John Updike)

  3. “The Oven Bird” (Robert Frost)

  4. “The Owl” (Carl Rakosi”

  5. “The Blue” (David Baker)

  6. “Redwing Blackbirds” (Robert Penn Warren)

  7. “Starlings in Winter” (Mary Oliver)

  8. “The Kingfisher” (Lisa Williams)

Additional Resources to Support Further Exploration of Birds in Poetry

  1. Bright Wings, An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds edited by Billy Collins and illustrated by David Allen Sibley.

  2. Dawn Song: a Birdwatcher's Field Guide to the Poetics of Migration edited by Jamie Reaser and J. Drew Lanham.

  3. Poetry Foundation has an expansive online library. The mission of this Chicago-based organization is to expand and enhance the presence of poetry in the US. 

Answers

A: 3
B: 5
C: 1
D: 7
E: 6
F: 8
G: 4
H: 2

 
Robyn Detterline