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From the ancient Greeks to the late Renaissance revival of pastoral poetry, nature has been a classic topic for poems. In honor of National Poetry Month, we’ve gathered some examples of verse about the wonders of nature, from the landscape to the animals, from the splendor of the seasons to the simplest slant of light.

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Here are ten gems from JSTOR’s digital library, available here for free download:

“Fall,” by Mary Oliver

“Black Rook in Rainy Weather,” by Sylvia Plath

“Sun In Days,” by Meghan O’Rourke

“Holy Spring,” by Dylan Thomas

“Animal Study,” by Ellen Bryant Voigt

“More Light,” a prose-poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

“The Feeling of Spring,” by Sakutarō Hagiwara and Makoto Ueda

“Jones Very” and “Winter Poem,” by Charles Simic

“Winter Poem/The Snowy Owl,” by Judith Minty

“White Mountains,” Robert Cording

Resources

JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR.

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Central Michigan University
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The Johns Hopkins University Press