Birds in Poetry
Common themes of birds in poetry include their connection to the natural world, the uplifting element of flight, and the musical beauty of their song. In The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe uses the titular bird as a morbid element, embodying feelings of grief, despair, and loneliness. In the poem, a solitary student is visited in his room by a raven, who only speaks the word “nevermore,” which is a reminder of mortality and lost love. Scholars have drawn a connection between Poe’s raven and the talking raven named Grip in Charles Dickens’ novel Barnaby Rudge. In characterizing the raven as an ominous or supernatural figure, Poe was drawing on the species’ storied history in religion, mythology, and folklore.
This work was popular during and after Poe’s lifetime, with contemporary authors copying his writing style for their own poems and stories. The Raven was also featured in the 2019 exhibit Whitman @ 200: Life and Legacy, where it was displayed alongside the works of New York City bohemians who had imitated Poe, including Walt Whitman himself.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849).
The Raven, and Other Poems. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1845.
Lehigh University Catalog Record: https://asa.lib.lehigh.edu/Record/256821
A version of this text has been digitized and is available through The Internet Archive.
Digitized Version
John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale is perhaps the most well-known English poem with a bird as its subject. Keats’ work tends to focus on the beauty and purity of the natural world. In this poem, the transcendent beauty of the nightingale and its song are contrasted with the often painful reality of human life and mortality. Despite the positive imagery of the nightingale, the poem describes a negative and morbid outlook on the fleeting nature of life and happiness.
Keats’ peers in the romanticism movement also wrote poetry about birds. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s To a Skylark uses the bird as a symbol of high-flying joy and ecstasy in stark contrast to the pain and sadness inherent to humanity. Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem The Eagle is significantly shorter in length and focuses on the natural environment of the air and sea that the eagle inhabits along with its imposing physicality.
The nightingale is a popular subject for poets and authors, including works as old as Homer’s Odyssey through the plays of William Shakespeare. The nightingale has been revered for the beauty of its song and its connection to the start of the spring season. This bird was also featured in Oscar Wilde’s short story The Nightingale and the Rose (displayed here).
John Keats (1795-1821).
Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems. Ode to a Nightingale. London: Taylor and Hessey, 1820.
Lehigh University Catalog Record: https://asa.lib.lehigh.edu/Record/259571
A version of this text has been digitized and is available through The Internet Archive.