Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds
$14.04
- ISBN13: 9780231150842
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
In this beautiful collection of poems and paintings, Billy Collins, former U.S. poet laureate, joins with 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. Here, in this substantial anthology, more th… More >>
Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds
This is beautiful collection of delightful poems about birds of all kinds from all kinds of poets! I loved the intro by Billy Collins, one of my all time favorites, and also admired the beautiful photos of the birds being written about.
Rating: 5 / 5
Rarely have poetry and art been so deftly partnered as it is in “Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds “, a 288-page compendium of poetry knowledgeably compiled and deftly edited by Billy Collins, and superbly enhanced with the aviary painting of David Allen Sibley. The them of both the poetry and the imagery are an impressive variety of birdlife. The dozens and dozens of poems ranges from Robert Creeley’s ‘The Birds’; to Henry Carlile’s ‘The Cardinal’; to Wallace Stevens’ ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird’; to Thomas Hardy’s ‘The Caged Goldfinch’. The art is museum quality, the poetry superbly memorable. A truly impressive anthology of word and art, “Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds” is a welcome and enthusiastically recommended addition to personal, family, academic, and community library poetry collections and supplemental reading lists.
Rating: 5 / 5
… but I found it odd that neither of the first two poems that leapt to mind, G.M. Hopkins ‘The Windhover’ and R. Jeffers ‘Hurt Hawks,’ is included. Birdwatching is qute a challenge. What a terrific book. Thanks to Sibley and Collins.
Rating: 5 / 5
As a birder when I look at my large collection of bird books and guides, I frequently swear I’m not buying another book on birds, about birds, or to view birds! Then along comes a book like Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds and my resolutions not to add another birding book to the shelf is forgotten as I view the poetry and wonderful art work.
Billy Collins, a former US Poet Laureate choose over 100 poems to include in this lovely little volume about birds. David Allen Sibley of the Sibley bird guides is the illustrator. That winning combination alone would make this wonderful volume of bird-related poetry and art a must for a birder!
The book contains both classical and modern poems by poets/writers as diverse as Keats, Plath, Nemerov, and Thoreau. Sixty or so illustrations lovingly picture birds along side the poetry.
Best of all, the book will inspire you to look at birds, even the every day ones like the Grackle with new eyes. You may even feel the muse of poetry or art fall upon you and you’ll be inspired to pick up your pencil and try your hand at writing poetry or sketching the birds you see in your back yard!
Rating: 5 / 5
Everything about this book is appropriate to the fleeting beauty of the subject. The poems are lovely, the images true, and the overall effect warming to the heart. Its appeal is not limited to either poetry lovers or birdwatchers; anyone who loves a beautiful book will enjoy it.
Rating: 5 / 5