“Hope is the thing with feathers.”
The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the only species of hummingbird that breeds in the eastern half of North America. Powerful in spite of its small size, and with a wing beat of more than fifty times a second, it flies without stopping over the Gulf of Mexico to winter in southern Mexico and Central America.
Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation, and has served two terms as the poet laureate of the United States, along with one term as New York State Poet. Collins divides his time between New York and Winter Park, Florida.
David Allen Sibley has spent most of his life traveling across North America, studying and drawing the natural world. With the National Audubon Society, he published The Sibley Guide to Birds in 2004 and The Sibley Guide to Trees in 2009. He lives with his family in Concord, Massachusetts, and his work can be viewed at www.sibleyguides.com.
Barn Swallow The Barn Swallow is one of the most abundant and wide-ranging swallow species in the world, breeding throughout the Northern Hemisphere
Br i g ht Wi n g s
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National
& Sibley
Emily Dickinson
for the National Poetry Series. He has received fellowships
Collins
An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds
B i l l y C o l l i n s is Distinguished Professor of English at Lehman College and the author of eight books of poetry, including Ballistics, The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems, Nine Horses, Sailing Alone Around the World, and Questions About Angels, which was selected by Edward Hirsch
d e s i g n
by
ku s h n i r s k y
Poems About Birds
Columbia University Press
New York
c u p . c o lu m b i a . e d u printed in the u.s.a.
Edited by Bi l ly Pa i n t i n g s b y D a v i d columbia
In this beautiful collection of poems and paintings, Billy Collins, former U.S. poet laureate, joins David Allen Sibley, America’s foremost bird illustrator, to celebrate the winged creatures that have inspired so many poets to sing for centuries. From Catullus and Chaucer to Robert Browning and James Wright, poets have long treated birds as powerful metaphors for beauty, escape, transcendence, and divine expression. In this substantial anthology, more than one hundred classic and contemporary poems are paired with close to sixty original, ornithologically precise illustrations. Part poetry collection, part field guide, part art book, Bright Wings presents verbal and visual interpretations of the natural world and reminds us of our intimate connection to the “bright wings” around us. Each in its own way, these poems and pictures honor the enchanting creatures that have been, and continue to be, longtime collaborators with the poet’s and painter’s art.
It is easily identified by its long, forked tail.
9 780231 150842 j u l i a
An Illustrated Anthology of
and wintering in much of the Southern Hemisphere.
ISBN: 978-0-231-15084-2
jac k e t
Br i g ht Wi n g s
Col l
Al
l e n
i ns
Si bl e y
Peregrine Falcon The powerful and spectacularly fast Peregrine Falcon was once widespread throughout the world and was used in falconry in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. It was virtually exterminated from eastern North America in the mid-twentieth century because of pesticide poisoning, but a recovery effort has made the raptor a regular sight in a variety of habitats—including large cities. It still is found on every continent except Antarctica.
Peregrine Falcon, New York City
On the 65th floor where he wrote Advertising copy, joking about The erotic thrall of words that had No purpose other than to make Far too many buy far too much, He stood one afternoon face to face With a falcon that veered on the blade Of its wings and plummeted, then Swerved to a halt, wings hovering. An office of computers clicked Behind him. Below, the silence Of the miniature lunch time crowds And toy-like taxis drifting without Resolve to the will of others. This bird’s been brought in, he thought, To clean up the city’s dirty problems Of too many pigeons. It’s a hired beak.
53
Still he remained at the tinted glass Windows, watching as the falcon Gave with such purpose its self To the air that carried it, its sheer falls Breaking the mirrored self-reflections Of glass office towers. He chided Himself: this is how the gods come To deliver a message or a taunt, And, for a moment, the falcon Seemed to wait for his response, The air articulate with a kind of Wonder and terror. Then it was gone. He waited at the glass until he felt The diminishment of whatever Had unsettled him. And though The thin edge of the falcon’s wings Had opened the slightest fissure in him And he’d wandered far in thought, He already felt himself turning back To words for an ad, the falcon’s power Surely a fit emblem for something.
54
R o b e r t C o r d i n g
“Hope is the thing with feathers.”
The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the only species of hummingbird that breeds in the eastern half of North America. Powerful in spite of its small size, and with a wing beat of more than fifty times a second, it flies without stopping over the Gulf of Mexico to winter in southern Mexico and Central America.
Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation, and has served two terms as the poet laureate of the United States, along with one term as New York State Poet. Collins divides his time between New York and Winter Park, Florida.
David Allen Sibley has spent most of his life traveling across North America, studying and drawing the natural world. With the National Audubon Society, he published The Sibley Guide to Birds in 2004 and The Sibley Guide to Trees in 2009. He lives with his family in Concord, Massachusetts, and his work can be viewed at www.sibleyguides.com.
Barn Swallow The Barn Swallow is one of the most abundant and wide-ranging swallow species in the world, breeding throughout the Northern Hemisphere
Br i g ht Wi n g s
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National
& Sibley
Emily Dickinson
for the National Poetry Series. He has received fellowships
Collins
An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds
B i l l y C o l l i n s is Distinguished Professor of English at Lehman College and the author of eight books of poetry, including Ballistics, The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems, Nine Horses, Sailing Alone Around the World, and Questions About Angels, which was selected by Edward Hirsch
d e s i g n
by
ku s h n i r s k y
Poems About Birds
Columbia University Press
New York
c u p . c o lu m b i a . e d u printed in the u.s.a.
Edited by Bi l ly Pa i n t i n g s b y D a v i d columbia
In this beautiful collection of poems and paintings, Billy Collins, former U.S. poet laureate, joins David Allen Sibley, America’s foremost bird illustrator, to celebrate the winged creatures that have inspired so many poets to sing for centuries. From Catullus and Chaucer to Robert Browning and James Wright, poets have long treated birds as powerful metaphors for beauty, escape, transcendence, and divine expression. In this substantial anthology, more than one hundred classic and contemporary poems are paired with close to sixty original, ornithologically precise illustrations. Part poetry collection, part field guide, part art book, Bright Wings presents verbal and visual interpretations of the natural world and reminds us of our intimate connection to the “bright wings” around us. Each in its own way, these poems and pictures honor the enchanting creatures that have been, and continue to be, longtime collaborators with the poet’s and painter’s art.
It is easily identified by its long, forked tail.
9 780231 150842 j u l i a
An Illustrated Anthology of
and wintering in much of the Southern Hemisphere.
ISBN: 978-0-231-15084-2
jac k e t
Br i g ht Wi n g s
Col l
Al
l e n
i ns
Si bl e y