Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds (edited by Billy Collins)

For the "book of nature poems" prompt in the Read Harder Challenge, I've been working my way through this illustrated anthology, edited by Billy Collins. This was a suggestion from Book Riot that seemed to be right up my alley, as a birder and bird lover.  I bought it on actual paper and everything, the better to enjoy the illustrations. (Also the library didn't have it.)

The poems themselves skewed a bit male and a bit old-timey for me. I did enjoy offerings from Wordsworth and Tennyson, but I didn't really need Thoreau attempting to rhyme about birds. I would have enjoyed more fresh, contemporary poems and less of the predictable, oft-anthologized authors. (We didn't need two Dickinson poems about robins, especially when one is far superior to the other.) But there are quite a few delightful poems. I particularly enjoyed "Pheasant" by Sylvia Plath and "Grackles" by Lisa Williams.

David Sibley's illustrations and facts about the various featured species added a lot too.  Overall I just wished the poetry were a bit fresher.