History & About the Project
Poems & Birdsong
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Teaching "Birdsong"

Poems & Birdsong

Poems featuring skylarks, swallows, and nightingales.

Skylarks

William Wordsworth, “To the Skylark”
Felicia Hemans, “Oh! Skylark for thy wings”
Felicia Hemans, “The Swan and the Skylark”
Percy Shelley, "To a Skylark"

With the heathery hills beneath me,

Where the streams in glory spring,

And the pearly clouds to wreath me,

Oh skylark for thy wing.

- Oh! Skylark for Thy Wings, Felicia Hemans

Nightingales

S.T. Coleridge, " The Nightingale"
John Keats, "Ode to a Nightingale"
Charlotte Smith, “On the Departure of the Nightingale”
Charlotte Smith, To a Nightingale

Poor melancholy bird—that all night long
Tell'st to the Moon, thy tale of tender woe;
From what sad cause can such sweet sorrow flow,
And whence this mournful melody of song?

-Sonnet III: To A Nightingale, Charlotte Smith

Swallows

Charlotte Smith, "The Swallow"
Dorothy Wordsworth: Watching the Swallows

Watching the swallows
That flew about restlessly,
And flung their shadows
Upon the sunbright walls of the old building;

- Watching the Swallows, Dorothy Wordsmith

Explore poems by author:

International Poetry and Misc. Poems

José María Heredia, “Death of the Eagle

José María Heredia, “El Filósofo y el Búho” (“The Philosopher and the Owl”)

Anna Letitia Barbauld, “To Mrs P ____ with some drawings of birds and insects

Helen Maria Williams, “Sonnet: To The White Bird of the Tropics

William Blake, “The Blossom

Joanna Baillie, “A Hymn for the Kirk