Birds with their ability to fly, lovely coloration and beautiful songs have long inspired poets and writers. Below is a collection of interesting bird poems written by famous poets. We also have a collection of great bird quotes.

• "The Nightingale" by Sir Philip Sidney
  This poem was written in the 16th century. It contains the lines: "While late bare earth, proud of new clothing, springeth, Sings out her woes, a thorn her song-book making, "
  
  
• "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats
  Keat's Nightingale poem contains the lines: "Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird! No hungry generations tread thee down; The voice I hear this passing night was heard "
  
  
• "Song of the Owl" by Henry Wadsworth Longfello
  Keat's Nightingale poem contains the lines: "The owl Au The great black Owl"
  
  
• "Each and All" by Ralph Waldo Emerson
  Emerson's poem contains the lines: "I thought the sparrow's note from heaven, Singing at dawn on the alder bough; I brought him home, in his nest, at even; He sings the song, but it pleases not now,"
  
  
• "She Sights a Bird" by Emily Dickinson
  Emily Dickinson's poem about a cat hunting a bird contains the lines:

  "Her Jaws stir — twitching — hungry —
  Her Teeth can hardly stand —
  She leaps, but Robin leaped the first —"

  
  
• "To a Skylark" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
  Shelley's poem contains the lines:

  "Higher still and higher
  From the earth thou springest
  Like a cloud of fire;
  The blue deep thou wingest, "

  
  
• "Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar
  Dunbar's famous poem begins with the lines: "I know what the caged bird feels, alas! When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;"
  
  
• "Last Night I Dreamed of Chickens" by Jack Prelutsky
  Prelutsky's poem contains the lines: "there were chickens everywhere, they were standing on my stomach, they were nesting in my hair,"
  
  
• "The Eagle" by Alfred Lord Tennyson
  Tennyson's poem contains the lines: "The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, "
  
  
  
  
  
• "The Dalliance of the Eagles" by Walt Whitman
  Whitman's poem contains the lines: "The clinching interlocking claws, a living, fierce, gyrating wheel, Four beating wings, two beaks, a swirling mass tight grappling, "
  
  
• "The Birds" by William Blake
  Blake's poem contains the lines: "Where thou thy charming nest dost build, O thou pride of every field!"
  
  
• "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe
  Poe's classic horrror poem begins, "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary."
  
  

You can find more poems in our Poems section