Theme · 587 poems

Nature Poems

Daffodils, tigers, autumn fields, and one very famous frog: the poems that taught generations how to look at the world outside the window.

English nature poetry got its constitution from the Romantics: Wordsworth's ten thousand daffodils, Keats's autumn conspiring with the sun, Blake's tiger burning in the forests of the night. For them nature wasn't scenery — it was a mirror, a teacher, and occasionally a sermon delivered by weather. Half a world away, the haiku masters were making the same discovery in seventeen syllables.

What unites four centuries of nature poems is a single discipline: attention. Looking at one thing long enough to see it — really see it — turns out to be both how nature poems get written and what they quietly teach. Today's ecopoets have added urgency to the looking, but the looking itself hasn't changed since Bashō's frog jumped.

LengthForm

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

Walt Whitman · 1865

When I heard the learn'd astronomer,When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,

7 lines · free verse

Pied Beauty

Gerard Manley Hopkins · 1877

Glory be to God for dappled things— For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

11 lines · lyric

Trees

Joyce Kilmer · 1913

I THINK that I shall never seeA poem lovely as a tree.A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

12 lines · lyric

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Robert Frost · 1923

Whose woods these are I think I know.His house is in the village though;He will not see me stopping here

16 lines · lyric

The Tyger

William Blake · 1794

Tyger, tyger, burning brightIn the forests of the night,What immortal hand or eye

24 lines · lyric

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud

William Wordsworth · 1807

I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o'er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,

24 lines · lyric

The Darkling Thrush

Thomas Hardy · 1900

I leant upon a coppice gateWhen Frost was spectre-gray,And Winter's dregs made desolate

32 lines · lyric

To Autumn

John Keats · 1820

ISeason of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

36 lines · ode

To a Mouse

Robert Burns · 1785

Wee, sleekit, cow'rin', tim'rous beastie,Oh, what a panic's in thy breastie!Thou needna start awa' sae hasty,

48 lines · lyric

Ode to the West Wind

Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1820

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves deadAre driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

70 lines · ode

Ode to a Nightingale

John Keats · 1819

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness painsMy sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains

80 lines · ode

Thanatopsis

William Cullen Bryant · 1817

To him who in the love of Nature holdsCommunion with her visible forms, she speaksA various language; for his gayer hours

81 lines · elegy

Defrauded I a Butterfly

Emily Dickinson

Defrauded I a Butterfly —The lawful Heir — for Thee —

2 lines · lyric

Winter under cultivation

Emily Dickinson

Winter under cultivationIs as arable as Spring.

2 lines · lyric

The Old Pond (haiku)

Matsuo Bashō · 1686

an old pond, still —a frog leaps into water:the sound of the splash

3 lines · haiku

Summer Grasses (haiku)

Matsuo Bashō · 1689

summer grasses grow —all that remains of the dreamsof proud warriors

3 lines · haiku

Autumn Evening (haiku)

Matsuo Bashō · 1680

on a bare branch sitsa crow, settled in for night —autumn evening falls

3 lines · haiku

First Warm Rain

The QuillOak Editors

first warm rain of spring —the umbrellas stay foldedeveryone looks up

3 lines · haiku

Crocus in the Frost

The QuillOak Editors

crocus in the frosttoo early, and unbothered —teach me that, small one

3 lines · haiku

August Afternoon

The QuillOak Editors

august afternoon —the garden hose, the shriekingjoy of being eight

3 lines · haiku

Cicadas at Dusk

The QuillOak Editors

cicadas at duskturning the whole heat to song —even the heat sings

3 lines · haiku

One Red Maple Leaf

The QuillOak Editors

one red maple leafrides the river out of town —travel light, it says

3 lines · haiku

Snow on the Mailbox

The QuillOak Editors

snow on the mailbox —all the news the morning bringsis white, and silent

3 lines · haiku

A Flower will not trouble her, it has so small a Foot

Emily Dickinson

A Flower will not trouble her, it has so small a Foot,And yet if you compare the Lasts,Hers is the smallest Boot —

3 lines · lyric

To see the Summer Sky

Emily Dickinson

To see the Summer SkyIs Poetry, though never in a Book it lie —True Poems flee —

3 lines · lyric

I hide myself within my flower

Emily Dickinson

I hide myself within my flower,That fading from your Vase,You, unsuspecting, feel for me —

4 lines · lyric

My Season's furthest Flower

Emily Dickinson

My Season's furthest Flower —I tenderer commendBecause I found Her Kinsmanless,

4 lines · lyric

No Autumn's intercepting Chill

Emily Dickinson

No Autumn's intercepting ChillAppalls this Tropic Breast —But African Exuberance

4 lines · lyric

Not at Home to Callers

Emily Dickinson

Not at Home to CallersSays the Naked Tree —Bonnet due in April —

4 lines · lyric

Of Nature I shall have enough

Emily Dickinson

Of Nature I shall have enoughWhen I have entered theseEntitled to a Bumble bee's

4 lines · lyric

Peace is a fiction of our Faith

Emily Dickinson

Peace is a fiction of our Faith —The Bells a Winter NightBearing the Neighbor out of Sound

4 lines · lyric

She rose as high as His Occasion

Emily Dickinson

She rose as high as His OccasionThen sought the Dust —And lower lay in low Westminster

4 lines · lyric

The Butterfly in honored Dust

Emily Dickinson

The Butterfly in honored DustAssuredly will lieBut none will pass the Catacomb

4 lines · lyric

The stem of a departed Flower

Emily Dickinson

The stem of a departed FlowerHas still a silent rank.The Bearer from an Emerald Court

4 lines · lyric

Too happy Time dissolves itself

Emily Dickinson

Too happy Time dissolves itselfAnd leaves no remnant by —'Tis Anguish not a Feather hath

4 lines · lyric

Touch lightly Nature's sweet Guitar

Emily Dickinson

Touch lightly Nature's sweet GuitarUnless thou know'st the TuneOr every Bird will point at thee

4 lines · lyric

Where Roses would not dare to go

Emily Dickinson

Where Roses would not dare to go,What Heart would risk the way —And so I send my Crimson Scouts

4 lines · lyric

Why Flowers Change Colour

Robert Herrick

These fresh beauties, we can prove,Once were virgins, sick of love,Turn'd to flowers: still in some,

4 lines · lyric

The Angler Rose, He Took His Rod

Robert Louis Stevenson

THE angler rose, he took his rod,He kneeled and made his prayers to God.The living God sat overhead:

4 lines · lyric

Look Down, Fair Moon

Walt Whitman

LOOK down, fair moon, and bathe this scene;Pour softly down night’s nimbus floods, on faces ghastly, swollen, purple;On the dead, on their backs, with their arms toss’d wide,

4 lines · lyric

The Lily

William Blake

The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,The humble sheep a threat'ning horn:While the Lily white shall in love delight,

4 lines · lyric

Letting Go (a Crapsey Cinquain)

The QuillOak Editors

Dusk fallsthe maples lettheir last gold go without

5 lines · cinquain

My Garden—like the Beach

Emily Dickinson

My Garden — like the Beach —Denotes there be — a Sea —That's Summer —

5 lines · lyric

So gay a Flower

Emily Dickinson

So gay a FlowerBereaves the MindAs if it were a Woe —

5 lines · lyric

The fairest Home I ever knew

Emily Dickinson

The fairest Home I ever knewWas founded in an HourBy Parties also that I knew

5 lines · lyric

The good Will of a Flower

Emily Dickinson

The good Will of a FlowerThe Man who would possessMust first present

5 lines · lyric

A little Madness in the Spring

Emily Dickinson

A little Madness in the SpringIs wholesome even for the King,But God be with the Clown —

6 lines · lyric

Her spirit rose to such a height

Emily Dickinson

Her spirit rose to such a heightHer countenance it did inflateLike one that fed on awe.

6 lines · lyric

She slept beneath a tree

Emily Dickinson

She slept beneath a tree —Remembered but by me.I touched her Cradle mute —

6 lines · lyric

The Butterfly's Assumption Gown

Emily Dickinson

The Butterfly's Assumption GownIn Chrysoprase Apartments hungThis afternoon put on —

6 lines · lyric

The Butterfly's Numidian Gown

Emily Dickinson

The Butterfly's Numidian GownWith spots of Burnish roasted onIs proof against the Sun

6 lines · lyric

The Flower must not blame the Bee

Emily Dickinson

The Flower must not blame the Bee —That seeketh his felicityToo often at her door —

6 lines · lyric

Water, is taught by thirst

Emily Dickinson

Water, is taught by thirst.Land — by the Oceans passed.Transport — by throe —

6 lines · lyric

Farewell to North Devon

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Where man's profane and tainting handNature's primaeval loveliness has marred,And some few souls of the high bliss debarred

6 lines · lyric

Stanza

Percy Bysshe Shelley

If I walk in Autumn's evenWhile the dead leaves pass,If I look on Spring's soft heaven, —

6 lines · lyric

The Waning Moon

Percy Bysshe Shelley

And like a dying lady, lean and pale,Who totters forth, wrapped in a gauzy veil,Out of her chamber, led by the insane

6 lines · lyric

An Epitaph Upon a Child

Robert Herrick

Virgins promised when I died,That they would each primrose-tideDuly, morn and evening, come,

6 lines · lyric

To His Kinswoman, Mistress Susanna Herrick

Robert Herrick

When I consider, dearest, thou dost stayBut here awhile, to languish and decay;Like to these garden glories, which here be

6 lines · lyric

The Ship Starting

Walt Whitman

LO! the unbounded sea!On its breast a Ship starting, spreading all her sails—an ample Ship, carrying even her moonsails;

6 lines · lyric

The Eagle

Alfred, Lord Tennyson · 1851

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;Close to the sun in lonely lands,Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

6 lines · lyric

Common questions

What is the most famous nature poem?

Wordsworth's 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud' — the daffodils — is the most recognized in English; Keats's 'To Autumn' is the critics' favorite.

What is a nature poet called?

Historically a pastoral or Romantic poet; today you'll hear 'ecopoet' for writers focused on environment and climate. The job description — look closely, report honestly — hasn't changed.