Famous Ostrich Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Song To David

...Strong is the horse upon his speed; 
Strong in pursuit the rapid glede,
 Which makes at once his game: 
Strong the tall ostrich on the ground; 
Strong through the turbulent profound 
 Shoots xiphias to his aim.

 LXXVI 
Strong is the lion—like a coal 
His eyeball—like a bastion's mole
 His chest against his foes: 
Strong, the gier-eagle on his sail, 
Strong against tide, th'enormous whale 
 Emerges as he goes. 

 LXXVII 
But stronger still in earth and air, 
And in the sea, t...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher


A Song to David (excerpt)

....

Strong is the horse upon his speed;
Strong in pursuit the rapid glede,
Which makes at once his game:
Strong the tall ostrich on the ground;
Strong thro' the turbulent profound
Shoots xiphias to his aim.

Strong is the lion--like a coal
His eye-ball--like a bastion's mole
His chest against the foes:
Strong, the gier-eagle on his sail,
Strong against tide, th' enormous whale
Emerges as he goes.

But stronger still, in earth and air,
And in the sea, the man of pray'r;
And far...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher

Foreign Children

...anee, 
Oh! don't you wish that you were me? 

You have seen the scarlet trees 
And the lions over seas; 
You have eaten ostrich eggs, 
And turned the turtle off their legs. 

Such a life is very fine, 
But it's not so nice as mine: 
You must often as you trod, 
Have wearied NOT to be abroad. 

You have curious things to eat, 
I am fed on proper meat; 
You must dwell upon the foam, 
But I am safe and live at home. 
Little Indian, Sioux or Crow, 
Little frosty Eskimo, 
Little T...Read more of this...
by Stevenson, Robert Louis

Georgia Dusk

...f of former domicile.

Meanwhile, the men, with vestiges of pomp,
 Race memories of king and caravan,
 High-priests, an ostrich, and a juju-man,
Go singing through the footpaths of the swamp.

Their voices rise . . the pine trees are guitars,
 Strumming, pine-needles fall like sheets of rain . .
 Their voices rise . . the chorus of the cane
Is caroling a vesper to the stars . .

O singers, resinous and soft your songs
 Above the sarcred whisper of the pines,
 Give virgin lips...Read more of this...
by Toomer, Jean

He Digesteth Harde Yron

...icious.How
could he, prized for plumes and eggs and young
used even as a riding-beast, respect men
hiding actor-like in ostrich skins, with the right hand
making the neck move as if alive
and from a bag the left hand strewing grain, that ostriches

might be decoyed and killed!Yes, this is he
whose plume was anciently
the plume of justice; he
whose comic duckling head on its
great neck revolves with compass-needle nervousness
when he stands guard,

in S-like foragings as he is...Read more of this...
by Moore, Marianne


Niagara

...deathless glory is at play:
Niagara, Niagara.

The women buy their lace and cry: —
"O such a delicate design,"
And over ostrich feathers sigh,
By counters there, in Buffalo.
The children haunt the trinket shops,
They buy false-faces, bells, and tops,
Forgetting great Niagara.

Within the town of Buffalo
Are stores with garnets, sapphires, pearls,
Rubies, emeralds aglow, —
Opal chains in Buffalo,
Cherished symbols of success.
They value not your rainbow dress: —
Niagara, Niaga...Read more of this...
by Lindsay, Vachel

Oonts

...'s a gentleman, the battery-mule's a mule;
But the commissariat cam-u-el, when all is said an' done,
'E's a devil an' a ostrich an' a orphan-child in one.
 O the oont, O the oont, O the Gawd-forsaken oont!
 The lumpy-'umpy 'ummin'-bird a-singin' where 'e lies,
 'E's blocked the whole division from the rear-guard to the front,
 An' when we get him up again -- the beggar goes an' dies!

'E'll gall an' chafe an' lame an' fight -- 'e smells most awful vile;
'E'll lose 'isself for...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

Rural Reflections

...ing it green,
But you have never found
A way to make the grass mean what you mean.

A cloud can be whatever you intend:
Ostrich or leaning tower or staring eye.
But you have never found
A cloud sufficient to express the sky.

Get out there with your splendid expertise;
Raymond who cuts the meadow does not less.
Inhuman nature says:
Inhuman patience is the true success.

Human impatience trips you as you run;
Stand still and you must lie.
It is the grass that cuts the mower do...Read more of this...
by Rich, Adrienne

Skunk Hour

...kunk with her column of kittens swills the garbage

pail.
She jabs her wedge-head in a cup
of sour cream, drops her ostrich tail,
and will not scare....Read more of this...
by Lowell, Robert

Spring in Town

...ere'er the eye
Threads the long way, plumes wave, and twinkling feet
Fall light, as hastes that crowd of beauty by.
The ostrich, hurrying o'er the desert space,
Scarce bore those tossing plumes with fleeter pace.

No swimming Juno gait, of languor born,
Is theirs, but a light step of freest grace,
Light as Camilla's o'er the unbent corn,
A step that speaks the spirit of the place,
Since Quiet, meek old dame, was driven away
To Sing Sing and the shores of Tappan bay.

Ye that ...Read more of this...
by Bryant, William Cullen

The Ancient World

...Today the Masons are auctioning 
their discarded pomp: a trunk of turbans, 
gemmed and ostrich-plumed, and operetta costumes 
labeled inside the collar "Potentate" 
and "Vizier." Here their chairs, blazoned 
with the Masons' sign, huddled 
like convalescents, lean against one another 

on the grass. In a casket are rhinestoned poles 
the hierophants carried in parades; 
here's a splendid golden staff some ranking officer waved, 
topped with a ...Read more of this...
by Doty, Mark

The Ostrich

...The ostrich roams the great Sahara. 
Its mouth is wide, its neck is narra. 
It has such long and lofty legs, 
I'm glad it sits to lay its eggs....Read more of this...
by Nash, Ogden

The Stranger

...mething legendary
Surrounds her presence in the room,
Her narrow hand, her silk, her bracelets,
Her hat, the rings, the ostrich plume.

Entranced by her presence, near and enigmatic,
I gaze through the dark of her lowered veil
And I behold an enchanted shoreline
And enchanted distances, far and pale.

I am made a guardian of the higher mysteries,
Someone's sun is entrusted to my control.
Tart wine has pierced the last convolution
of my labyrinthine soul.

And now the drooping...Read more of this...
by Blok, Aleksandr

The White Cliffs

...wars did men 
From happier continents look on us when 
They brought us sympathy, and saw us stand 
Like the proverbial ostrich-head in sand— 
While youth passed resolutions not to fight, 
And statesmen muttered everything was right— 
Germany, a kindly, much ill-treated nation—
Russia was working out her own salvation
Within her borders. As for Spain, ah, Spain
Would buy from England when peace came again!
I listened and believed— believed through sheer
Terror. I could not lo...Read more of this...
by Miller, Alice Duer

Threnody

...not tend 
And tides of life and increase lend; 
And every chick of every bird, 
And weed and rock-moss is preferred. 
O ostrich-like forgetfulnesr! 
O loss of larger in the lessl 
Was there no star that could be sent, 
No watcher in the firmament, 
No angel from the countless host 
That loiters round the crystal coast, 
Could stoop to heal that only child, 
Nature's sweet marvel undefiled, 
And keep the blossom of the earth, 
Which all her harvests were nor worth? 
Not mine,-...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Through The Metodja To Abd-El-Kadr

...se plied,
Yet his hide, streaked and pied,
As I ride, as I ride,
Shows where sweat has sprung and dried,
—Zebra-footed, ostrich-thighed— 
How has vied stride with stride
As I ride, as I ride!

V

As I ride, as I ride,
Could I loose what Fate has tied,
Ere I pried, she should hide
As I ride, as I ride,
All that's meant me: satisfied
When the Prophet and the Bride
Stop veins I'd have subside
As I ride, as I ride!...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

Wine and Water

...Old Noah he had an ostrich farm and fowls on the largest scale, 
He ate his egg with a ladle in a egg-cup big as a pail, 
And the soup he took was Elephant Soup and fish he took was Whale, 
But they all were small to the cellar he took when he set out to sail, 
And Noah he often said to his wife when he sat down to dine, 
"I don't care where the water goes if it doesn't get in...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K

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