Famous Nest Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Sonnet LIII

by Francesco Petrarch
SONNET LIII. E questo 'l nido in che la mia Fenice. THE SIGHT OF LAURA'S HOUSE REMINDS HIM OF HIS MISERY.  Is this the nest in which my phœnix firstHer plumage donn'd of purple and of gold,Beneath her wings who knew my heart to hold,For whom e'en yet its sighs and wishes...Read more of this...

In Reference to Her Children

by Anne Bradstreet
 I had eight birds hatched in one nest,
Four cocks there were, and hens the rest.
I nursed them up with pain and care,
Nor cost, nor labour did I spare,
Till at the last they felt their wing,
Mounted the trees, and learned to sing;
Chief of the brood then took his flight
To regions far and left me quite.
My mournful chirps I after send,
Till...Read more of this...

Spring

by John Gould Fletcher
 Birds' love and birds' song
Flying here and there,
Birds' songand birds' love
And you with gold for hair!
Birds' songand birds' love
Passing with the weather,
Men's song and men's love,
To love once and forever.

Men's love and birds' love,
And women's love and men's!
And you my wren with a crown of gold,
You my queen of the wrens!
You the queen of the wrens --
We'll be birds...Read more of this...

The Mares Nest

by Rudyard Kipling
 Jane Austen Beecher Stowe de Rouse
 Was good beyond all earthly need;
But, on the other hand, her spouse
 Was very, very bad indeed.
He smoked cigars, called churches slow,
And raced -- but this she did not know.

For Belial Machiavelli kept
 The little fact a secret, and,
Though o'er his minor sins she wept,
 Jane Austen did not understand
That Lilly -- thirteen-two...Read more of this...

The Beggars Valentine

by Vachel Lindsay
 Kiss me and comfort my heart 
Maiden honest and fine. 
I am the pilgrim boy 
Lame, but hunting the shrine; 

Fleeing away from the sweets, 
Seeking the dust and rain, 
Sworn to the staff and road, 
Scorning pleasure and pain; 

Nevertheless my mouth 
Would rest like a bird an hour 
And find in your curls a nest 
And find...Read more of this...

Misconceptions

by Robert Browning
 This is a spray the Bird clung to,
Making it blossom with pleasure,
Ere the high tree-top she sprung to,
Fit for her nest and her treasure.
Oh, what a hope beyond measure
Was the poor spray's, which the flying feet hung to,— 
So to be singled out, built in, and sung to!

This is a heart the Queen leant on,
Thrilled in a minute erratic,
Ere...Read more of this...

542. Song—Fragment—the Wren's Nest

by Robert Burns
 THE ROBIN to the Wren’s nest
 Cam keekin’ in, cam keekin’ in;
O weel’s me on your auld pow,
 Wad ye be in, wad ye be in?
Thou’s ne’er get leave to lie without,
 And I within, and I within,
Sae lang’s I hae an auld clout
 To rowe ye in, to rowe ye in....Read more of this...

The Bird's Nest

by Anonymous
There’s a nest in the hedge-row,Half bid by the leaves,And the sprays, white with blossom,Bend o’er it like eaves.God gives birds their lodging,He gives them their food,And they trust He will give themWhatever is good.Ah! when our rich blessings,My child, we forget;When for some little troubleWe murmur and fret;Hear sweet voices singingIn hedges and trees:Shall we be less thankful,Less trustful...Read more of this...

The Bait

by John Donne
 Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove,
Of golden sand, and crystal brooks,
With silken lines and silver hooks.

There will the river whispering run,
Warmed by thy eyes more than the sun.
And there the enamoured fish will stay.
Begging themselves they may betray.

When wilt thou swim in that live bath,
Each fish, which every channel hath,
Will amorously...Read more of this...

The Golden Age

by George William Russell
 WHEN the morning breaks above us
And the wild sweet stars have fled,
By the faery hands that love us
Wakened you and I will tread


Where the lilacs on the lawn
Shine with all their silver dews,
In the stillness of a dawn
Wrapped in tender primrose hues.


We will hear the strange old song
That the earth croons in her breast,
Echoed by the feathered throng
Joyous from...Read more of this...

Belts

by Rudyard Kipling
 There was a row in Silver Street that's near to Dublin Quay,
Between an Irish regiment an' English cavalree;
It started at Revelly an' it lasted on till dark:
The first man dropped at Harrison's, the last forninst the Park.
 For it was: -- "Belts, belts, belts, an' that's one for you!"
 An' it was "Belts, belts, belts, an' that's done for...Read more of this...

The Thrushs Nest

by John Clare
 Within a thick and spreading hawthorn bush
That overhung a molehill large and round,
I heard from morn to morn a merry thrush
Sing hymns to sunrise, and I drank the sound
With joy; and often, an intruding guest,
I watched her secret toil from day to day—
How true she warped the moss to form a nest,
And modelled it within with wood and clay;
And...Read more of this...

Hens Nest

by John Clare
 Among the orchard weeds, from every search,
Snugly and sure, the old hen's nest is made,
Who cackles every morning from her perch
To tell the servant girl new eggs are laid;
Who lays her washing by, and far and near
Goes seeking all about from day to day,
And stung with nettles tramples everywhere;
But still the cackling pullet lays away.
The boy on Sundays goes...Read more of this...

Nest Eggs

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 Birds all the summer day 
Flutter and quarrel 
Here in the arbour-like 
Tent of the laurel. 

Here in the fork 
The brown nest is seated; 
For little blue eggs 
The mother keeps heated. 

While we stand watching her 
Staring like gabies, 
Safe in each egg are the 
Bird's little babies. 

Soon the frail eggs they shall 
Chip, and upspringing...Read more of this...

Sea-Gulls of Manhattan

by Henry Van Dyke
 Children of the elemental mother, 
Born upon some lonely island shore 
Where the wrinkled ripples run and whisper,
Where the crested billows plunge and roar; 
Long-winged, tireless roamers and adventurers,
Fearless breasters of the wind and sea,
In the far-off solitary places
I have seen you floating wild and free! 

Here the high-built cities rise around you;
Here the cliffs that tower east and...Read more of this...

Surprise

by Richard Brautigan
 I lift the toliet seat
as if it were the nest of a bird
and I see cat tracks
all around the edge of the bowl....Read more of this...

I will Take an Egg Out of the Robin's Nest

by Walt Whitman
 I WILL take an egg out of the robin’s nest in the orchard, 
I will take a branch of gooseberries from the old bush in the garden, and go and preach to
 the
 world; 
You shall see I will not meet a single heretic or scorner, 
You shall see how I stump clergymen, and confound them, 
You shall see...Read more of this...

Absence

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Good-night, my love, for I have dreamed of thee
In waking dreams, until my soul is lost—
Is lost in passion's wide and shoreless sea,
Where, like a ship, unruddered, it is tost
Hither and thither at the wild waves' will.
There is no potent Master's voice to still
This newer, more tempestuous Galilee!
The stormy petrels of my fancy fly
In warning course across the darkening green,
And,...Read more of this...

The Ambition Bird

by Anne Sexton
 So it has come to this
insomnia at 3:15 A.M., 
the clock tolling its engine 

like a frog following 
a sundial yet having an electric 
seizure at the quarter hour. 

The business of words keeps me awake. 
I am drinking cocoa, 
that warm brown mama. 

I would like a simple life 
yet all night I am laying 
poems away in...Read more of this...

Song

by Thomas Carew
 ASK me no more where Jove bestows, 
When June is past, the fading rose; 
For in your beauty's orient deep 
These flowers, as in their causes, sleep. 

Ask me no more whither do stray 
The golden atoms of the day; 
For in pure love heaven did prepare 
Those powders to enrich your hair. 

Ask me no more whither doth...Read more of this...

The Nightingales Nest

by John Clare
 Up this green woodland-ride let's softly rove,
And list the nightingale— she dwells just here.
Hush ! let the wood-gate softly clap, for fear
The noise might drive her from her home of love ;
For here I've heard her many a merry year—
At morn, at eve, nay, all the live-long day,
As though she lived on song. This very spot,
Just where that old-man's-beard...Read more of this...

The Need of Being Versed in Country Things

by Robert Frost
 The house had gone to bring again
To the midnight sky a sunset glow.
Now the chimney was all of the house that stood,
Like a pistil after the petals go.
The barn opposed across the way,
That would have joined the house in flame
Had it been the will of the wind, was left
To bear forsaken the place's name.
No more it opened with all...Read more of this...

The Fairy Temple; Or Oberons Chapel

by Robert Herrick
 THE FAIRY TEMPLE; OR, OBERON'S CHAPEL

DEDICATED TO MR JOHN MERRIFIELD,
COUNSELLOR AT LAW

RARE TEMPLES THOU HAST SEEN, I KNOW,
AND RICH FOR IN AND OUTWARD SHOW;
SURVEY THIS CHAPEL BUILT, ALONE,
WITHOUT OR LIME, OR WOOD, OR STONE.
THEN SAY, IF ONE THOU'ST SEEN MORE FINE
THAN THIS, THE FAIRIES' ONCE, NOW THINE.

THE TEMPLE

A way enchaced with glass and beads
There is, that to the Chapel...Read more of this...

For every Bird a Nest

by Emily Dickinson
 For every Bird a Nest --
Wherefore in timid quest
Some little Wren goes seeking round --

Wherefore when boughs are free --
Households in every tree --
Pilgrim be found?

Perhaps a home too high --
Ah Aristocracy!
The little Wren desires --

Perhaps of twig so fine --
Of twine e'en superfine,
Her pride aspires --

The Lark is not ashamed
To build upon the ground
Her modest house --

Yet who...Read more of this...

The Exposed Nest

by Robert Frost
 You were forever finding some new play.
So when I saw you down on hands and knees
I the meadow, busy with the new-cut hay,
Trying, I thought, to set it up on end,
I went to show you how to make it stay,
If that was your idea, against the breeze,
And, if you asked me, even help pretend
To make it root again and...Read more of this...

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