Birds in Poetry

Poems containing birds by Emily Dickinson:

If I can stop one heart from breaking

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain. 

The Robin

The robin is the one

That interrupts the morn

With hurried, few, express reports

When March is scarcely on.

The robin is the one

That overflows the noon

With her cherubic quantity,

An April but begun.

The robin is the one

That speechless from her nest

Submits that home and certainty

And sanctity are best.

       I Dreaded That First Robin So

I DREADED that first robin so,
But he is mastered now,
And I ’m accustomed to him grown,—
He hurts a little, though.
I thought if I could only live	5
Till that first shout got by,
Not all pianos in the woods
Had power to mangle me.
I dared not meet the daffodils,
For fear their yellow gown	10
Would pierce me with a fashion
So foreign to my own.
I wished the grass would hurry,
So when ’t was time to see,
He ’d be too tall, the tallest one	15
Could stretch to look at me.
I could not bear the bees should come,
I wished they ’d stay away
In those dim countries where they go:
What word had they for me?	20
They ’re here, though; not a creature failed,
No blossom stayed away
In gentle deference to me,
The Queen of Calvary.
Each one salutes me as he goes,	25
And I my childish plumes
Lift, in bereaved acknowledgment
Of their unthinking drums.

A Bird, came down the Walk - (359)

A Bird, came down the Walk - 

He did not know I saw -

He bit an Angle Worm in halves

And ate the fellow, raw, 

 

And then, he drank a Dew

From a convenient Grass -

And then hopped sidewise to the Wall

To let a Beetle pass -

 

He glanced with rapid eyes,

That hurried all abroad -

They looked like frightened Beads, I thought,

He stirred his Velvet Head. - 

 

Like one in danger, Cautious,

I offered him a Crumb,

And he unrolled his feathers, 

And rowed him softer Home -

 

Than Oars divide the Ocean,

Too silver for a seam,

Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon,

Leap, plashless as they swim. 

Poems containing birds by William Wordsworth

TO A REDBREAST-- (IN SICKNESS) 

by William Wordsworth

          STAY, little cheerful Robin! stay,

            And at my casement sing,

          Though it should prove a farewell lay

            And this our parting spring.

          Though I, alas! may ne'er enjoy

            The promise in thy song;

          A charm, 'that' thought can not destroy,

            Doth to thy strain belong.

          Methinks that in my dying hour

            Thy song would still be dear,                             10

          And with a more than earthly power

            My passing Spirit cheer.

          Then, little Bird, this boon confer,

            Come, and my requiem sing,

          Nor fail to be the harbinger

            Of everlasting Spring.

                                                              1842.