The lake lay blue below the hill.
O’er it, as I looked, there flew
Across the waters, cold and still,
A bird whose wings were palest blue.
The sky above was blue at last,
The sky beneath me blue in blue.
A moment, ere the bird had passed,
It caught his image as he flew.
Poems by Mary E. Coleridge (1908) | Mary E. Coleridge (1861–1907)
Suggestions
- Read the poem aloud.
- Which lines rhyme?
- L’oiseau bleu is French for “the blue bird.” What other French words do you know?
- Read more about the bluebird.
- Copy and illustrate the poem using Drawing & Writing paper.
- This poem uses the quantrain or four-line stanzas, with an ABAB rhyme scheme. Write one quantrain stanza of your own with the same rhyme scheme about a different type of bird. Use the poem as your model.
Additional Resources
Nests & Eggs: Eastern Bluebird.
Bright blue harbingers of spring. Resources & free notebooking pages.
Burgess Bird Book {Free eBook & Activities}
Beautiful illustrations help with identification, but the stories are what make this nature book special. Bluebird included!
Free Nature Studies: Our Wonderful World
The bird portions of our free nature study series. Helpful for writing a poem about a different type of bird as suggested above.
Drawing & Writing Notebooking Paper {Free Download}
For copying and illustrating the poem.
