Famous Migrating Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Migrating poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous migrating poems. These examples illustrate what a famous migrating poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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American Feuillage

...ly twittering, the king-bird, from piercing the crow with its bill,
 for
 amusement—And I triumphantly twittering; 
The migrating flock of wild geese alighting in autumn to refresh themselves—the body
 of
 the
 flock feed—the sentinels outside move around with erect heads watching, and are from
 time
 to
 time reliev’d by other sentinels—And I feeding and taking turns with the rest; 
In Kanadian forests, the moose, large as an ox, corner’d by hunters, rising
 desperately on
 ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt


Duino Elegies: The Fourth Elegy

...O trees of life, oh, what when winter comes?
We are not of one mind. Are not like birds
in unison migrating. And overtaken,
overdue, we thrust ourselves into the wind
and fall to earth into indifferent ponds.
Blossoming and withering we comprehend as one.
And somewhere lions roam, quite unaware,
in their magnificence, of any weaknesss.

But we, while wholly concentrating on one thing,
already feel the pressure of another.
Hatred is our first response. An...Read more of this...
by Rilke, Rainer Maria

Green Fields

...d there are pets for the children but the lives that followed
courses of their own other than ours and older
 have been migrating before us some are already
far on the way and yet Peter with his gaunt cheeks
 and point of white beard the face of an aged Lawrence
Peter who had lived on from another time and country
 and who had seen so many things set out and vanish
still believed in heaven and said he had never once
 doubted it since his childhood on the farm in the days
of t...Read more of this...
by Merwin, W S

Proud Music of The Storm

...urf, beating on the sand,
The twittering bird, the hawk’s sharp scream, 
The wild-fowl’s notes at night, as flying low, migrating north or south, 
The psalm in the country church, or mid the clustering trees, the open air camp-meeting, 
The fiddler in the tavern—the glee, the long-strung sailor-song, 
The lowing cattle, bleating sheep—the crowing cock at dawn.

8
All songs of current lands come sounding ’round me, 
The German airs of friendship, wine and love, 
Irish ballads,...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Saturday At The Canal

...feeling awful because San Francisco was a postcard
On a bedroom wall. We wanted to go there, 
Hitchhike under the last migrating birds
And be with people who knew more than three chords
On a guitar. We didn't drink or smoke,
But our hair was shoulder length, wild when
The wind picked up and the shadows of
This loneliness gripped loose dirt. By bus or car,
By the sway of train over a long bridge,
We wanted to get out. The years froze
As we sat on the bank. Our eyes followed t...Read more of this...
by Soto, Gary


The Road That Runs Beside The River

...treambed, rocky-land river,
it turns there or here -- the ground
telling it so -- draining dull
mountains to the north,
migrating, feeding a few hard-fleshed fish
who live in it. One small sandbar splits
the river, then it loops left,
the road right, and the river's silver
slips under the trees,
into the forest,
and over the sharp perpendicular
edge of the earth....Read more of this...
by Lux, Thomas

The Saginaw Song

...a stream
 That some have called Swan Creek;
The turtles have bloodsucker sores,
 And mossy filthy feet;
The bottoms of migrating ducks
 Come off it much less neat.

In Saginaw, in Saginaw,
 Bartenders think no ill;
But they've ways of indicating when
 You are not acting well:
They throw you through the front plate glass
 And then send you the bill.

The Morleys and the Burrows are
 The aristocracy;
A likely thing for they're no worse
 Than the likes of you or me,—
A picture ...Read more of this...
by Roethke, Theodore

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