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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PELICANS, by AMY REQUA RUSSELL
First Line: They sail the evening sky, a solemn row
Last Line: As if it were their duty not their will.
Subject(s): Birds; Pelicans
First Line: They sail the evening sky, a solemn row
Last Line: As if it were their duty not their will.
Subject(s): Birds; Pelicans
They sail the evening sky, a solemn row
Of fishermen, surprising, quick and deft;
Through carmine stratus of the afterglow,
Unswerving to a useless right or left.
Or they patrol the beach at ebbing tide;
And with unwinking eyes, opaque and neat,
They grasp the scene and calculate beside
What wind and ocean bring for them to eat.
No judges seated on the highest bench
Present more earnest dignity than these;
Unlike the raucous gulls who scream, and wrench
Their daily fare from shifting sands and seas,
They gobble morsels with ungainly bill,
As if it were their duty not their will.
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THE REASON FOR THE PELICAN by JOHN CIARDI
THE FRIGATE PELICAN by MARIANNE MOORE
THE PELICANS MY FATHER SEES by SISTER MARIS STELLA
ODE TO THE PELICAN by MINNIE ELIZABETH OTTO
THREE WASH DRAWINGS: 1. PELICANS by WINIFRED WALDRON
WAR OF THE PELICANS by PETER DAVISON
PERSEPHONE IN THE UNDERWORLD: 3. THE PELICAN by DEBORA GREGER