10 Poems About Birds

There is probably more poetry about birds than about any other insect or animal, as if there’s something in the nature of a bird that makes it particularly suited to the small and intense space that is a poem. This delightful anthology is a second edition of one of our most popular titles and includes some beautiful new poems. It opens up a captivating world that exists in parallel to our own and will be relished by birders and poetry lovers alike.

The ten selections are little miracles in themselves, capturing the quirks of habit or appearance that distinguish one species from another. Never anthropomorphic, they imagine what the vivid life of a bird must be, or tease out what it is that thrills or moves us when we’re surprised by a bird as we hurry about our lives.

For Kathleen Jamie the wheeling flight of swallows captures a life lived in brightness and freedom, while for Katrina Porteous a skylark is:

“…all the music the heart needs,
Full of its sudden fall, silent fields.”

from ‘Skylark’ by Katrina Porteous

Poems by Elizabeth Bishop, John Clare, Emily Dickinson, Paul Farley, Rebecca Goss, Kathleen Jamie, Michael Longley, George MacBeth, Katrina Porteous and Lynne Wycherley.