Famous Plumage Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Hymn for Christmas Day

...concieve 
A Truth, which Being must believe, 
The God Eternal died. 

My Soul exert thy Powers, adore, 
Upon Devotion's plumage sar 
To celebrate the Day; 
The God from whom Creation sprung 
Shall animate my grateful Tongue; 
From him I'll catch the Lay!...Read more of this...
by Chatterton, Thomas


Among School Children

...heek as though it drank the wind
And took a mess of shadows for its meat?
And I though never of Ledaean kind
Had pretty plumage once - enough of that,
Better to smile on all that smile, and show
There is a comfortable kind of old scarecrow.

 V

What youthful mother, a shape upon her lap
Honey of generation had betrayed,
And that must sleep, shriek, struggle to escape
As recollection or the drug decide,
Would think her Son, did she but see that shape
With sixty or more winter...Read more of this...
by Yeats, William Butler

Blessing The Cornfields

...aize-field grew and ripened,
Till it stood in all the splendor
Of its garments green and yellow,
Of its tassels and its plumage,
And the maize-ears full and shining
Gleamed from bursting sheaths of verdure.
Then Nokomis, the old woman,
Spake, and said to Minnehaha:
`T is the Moon when, leaves are falling;
All the wild rice has been gathered,
And the maize is ripe and ready;
Let us gather in the harvest,
Let us wrestle with Mondamin,
Strip him of his plumes and tassels,
Of his...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Courage

...,
And ere I could check him he blazed with his gun.

Headless she lay, from her neck the blood spouted,
And dappled her plumage, the poor, pretty thing!
Ten little chicks - oh, I know for I counted,
Came out and they tried to creep under her wing.
Sickened I said: "Here's an end to my killing;
I swear, nevermore bird or beast will I slay;
Starving I may be, but no more blood-spilling . . ."
That oath I have kept, and I keep it to-day....Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

Gertrude of Wyoming

...
If but a dim sail glimmer'd in the sun;
But never more to bless his longing sight,
Was Outalissi hail'd, with bark and plumage bright.


PART II.

A valley from the river shower withdrawn
Was Albert's home, two quiet woods between,
Whose lofty verdure overlook'd his lawn
And waters to their resting-place serene
Came freshening, and reflecting all the scene:
(A mirror in the depth of flowery shelves;)
So sweet a spot of earth, you might (I ween,)
Have guess'd some congregatio...Read more of this...
by Campbell, Thomas


Hiawathas Fasting

...ain may fall upon me, 
Where the sun may come and warm me; 
Strip these garments, green and yellow, 
Strip this nodding plumage from me, 
Lay me in the earth, and make it 
Soft and loose and light above me.
"Let no hand disturb my slumber, 
Let no weed nor worm molest me, 
Let not Kahgahgee, the raven, 
Come to haunt me and molest me,
Only come yourself to watch me, 
Till I wake, and start, and quicken, 
Till I leap into the sunshine"
And thus saying, he departed; 
Peacefully...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Hiawathas Wedding-Feast

...guests assembled, 
Clad in all their richest raiment, 
Robes of fur and belts of wampum, 
Splendid with their paint and plumage, 
Beautiful with beads and tassels.
First they ate the sturgeon, Nahma, 
And the pike, the Maskenozha, 
Caught and cooked by old Nokomis; 
Then on pemican they feasted, 
Pemican and buffalo marrow, 
Haunch of deer and hump of bison, 
Yellow cakes of the Mondamin, 
And the wild rice of the river.
But the gracious Hiawatha, 
And the lovely Laughing Wat...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

MFingal - Canto III

...
And clouds him o'er with feathers missive,
And down, upon the tar, adhesive:
Not Maia's son, with wings for ears,
Such plumage round his visage wears;
Nor Milton's six-wing'd angel gathers
Such superfluity of feathers.
Now all complete appears our 'Squire,
Like Gorgon or Chimæra dire;
Nor more could boast on Plato's plan
To rank among the race of man,
Or prove his claim to human nature,
As a two-legg'd, unfeather'd creature.


Then on the fatal cart, in state
They raised our...Read more of this...
by Trumbull, John

My Aviary

...leaden wave in fierce rejoicing,
Feels heaven's dumb lightning thrill his torpid nerves,
Now on the blast his whistling plumage poising,
Now wheeling, whirling in fantastic curves.

Such is our gull; a gentleman of leisure,
Less fleshed than feathered; bagged you'll find him such;
His virtue silence; his employment pleasure;
Not bad to look at, and not good for much.

What of our duck? He has some high-bred cousins,--
His Grace the Canvas-back, My Lord the Brant,--
Anas and A...Read more of this...
by Holmes, Oliver Wendell

Ode To Sleep

...On this my pensive pillow, gentle Sleep!
Descend, in all thy downy plumage drest:
Wipe with thy wing these eyes that wake to weep,
And place thy crown of poppies on my breast.

O steep my senses in oblivion's balm,
And sooth my throbbing pulse with lenient hand;
This tempest of my boiling blood becalm!
Despair grows mild at thy supreme command.

Yet ah! in vain, familiar with the gloom,
And sadly toiling through the tedious...Read more of this...
by Warton, Thomas

Ode to the Muse

...om thy bright Parnassian bow'rs
Descend, to bless my sombre hours;
Bend to the earth thy eagle wing,
And on its glowing plumage bring
Blithe FANCY, from whose burning eye
The young ideas sparkling fly; 
O, come, and let us fondly stray,
Where rosy Health shall lead the way,
And soft FAVONIUS lightly spread
A perfum'd carpet as we tread;
Ah! let us from the world remove,
The calm forgetfulness to prove,
Which at the still of evening's close,
Lulls the tir'd peasant to repose; ...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Mary Darby

Remind Me Not Remind Me Not

...ng the azure orbs below;
While their long lashes' darken'd gloss
Seem'd stealing o'er thy brilliant cheek,
Like raven's plumage smooth'd on snow.

I dreamt last night our love return'd,
And, sooth to say, that very dream
Was sweeter in its phantasy,
Than if for other hearts I burn'd,
For eyes that ne'er like thine could beam
In Rapture's wild reality.

Then tell me not, remind me not,
Of hours which, though for ever gone,
Can still a pleasing dream restore,
Till Thou and I sh...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Housekeeper

...re. 
You never saw this room before a show, 
Full of lank, shivery, half-drowned birds 
In separate coops, having their plumage done. 
The smell of the wet feathers in the heat! 
You spoke of John's not being safe to stay with. 
You don't know what a gentle lot we are: 
We wouldn't hurt a hen! You ought to see us 
Moving a flock of hens from place to place. 
We're not allowed to take them upside down, 
All we can hold together by the legs. 
Two at a time's the rule, one on ea...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert

The Ideal And The Actual Life

...Forever fair, forever calm and bright,
Life flies on plumage, zephyr-light,
For those who on the Olympian hill rejoice--
Moons wane, and races wither to the tomb,
And 'mid the universal ruin, bloom
The rosy days of Gods--With man, the choice,
Timid and anxious, hesitates between
The sense's pleasure and the soul's content;
While on celestial brows, aloft and sheen,
The beams of both are blent.

Seekest thou on...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

The Lady of the Lake

...seldom was a snood amid
     Such wild luxuriant ringlets hid,
     Whose glossy black to shame might bring
     The plumage of the raven's wing;
     And seldom o'er a breast so fair
     Mantled a plaid with modest care,
     And never brooch the folds combined
     Above a heart more good and kind.
     Her kindness and her worth to spy,
     You need but gaze on Ellen's eye;
      Not Katrine in her mirror blue
     Gives back the shaggy banks more true,
     ...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Last Hero

...old of tales untold you bury with my bones
My loves in deep dim meadows, my ships that rode at ease
Ruffling the purple plumage of strange and secret seas
To see this fair earth as it stands, to me alone was given
The blow that breaks my brow tonight shall break the dome of heaven
The skies I saw, the trees I saw, after, no eye shall see
Tonight I die the death of God - the stars shall die with me!
One sound shall sunder all the spears, and break the trumpet's breath -
You ne...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K

The Marriage Of Geraint

...a lonely isle, 
Moves him to think what kind of bird it is 
That sings so delicately clear, and make 
Conjecture of the plumage and the form; 
So the sweet voice of Enid moved Geraint; 
And made him like a man abroad at morn 
When first the liquid note beloved of men 
Comes flying over many a windy wave 
To Britain, and in April suddenly 
Breaks from a coppice gemmed with green and red, 
And he suspends his converse with a friend, 
Or it may be the labour of his hands, 
To th...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Son Of The Evening Star

...waves with crimson, 
With the crimson of its life-blood, 
Filling all the air with splendor, 
With the splendor of its plumage?
Yes; it is the sun descending, 
Sinking down into the water; 
All the sky is stained with purple, 
All the water flushed with crimson! 
No; it is the Red Swan floating, 
Diving down beneath the water; 
To the sky its wings are lifted, 
With its blood the waves are reddened!
Over it the Star of Evening
Melts and trembles through the purple, 
Hangs su...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

The White Peacock

...and uplifted, 
All her satins fiery with the starshine, 
Nacreous, shimmering, weeping, iridescent, 
Like the quivering plumage of a peacock . . . 
Then her head drooped and I gripped her hair, 
Oh soft, scented cloud across my fingers! -- 
Bending her white neck back. . . . 

Blood writhed on my hands; I trod in blood. . . . 
Stupidly agaze 
At that crumpled heap of silk and moonlight, 
Where like twitching pinions, an arm twisted, 
Palely, and was still 
As the face of chal...Read more of this...
by Benet, Stephen Vincent

To His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor

...All-Conquering Death! by thy resistless pow'r,
Hope's tow'ring plumage falls to rise no more!
Of scenes terrestrial how the glories fly,
Forget their splendors, and submit to die!
Who ere escap'd thee, but the saint of old
Beyond the flood in sacred annals told,
And the great sage, whom fiery coursers drew
To heav'n's bright portals from Elisha's view;
Wond'ring he gaz'd at the refulgent car,

Then snatch'd the mantle f...Read more of this...
by Wheatley, Phillis

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