Poems inspired by nature capture it in a perfect form.
Nature has always inspired poets. From the changing seasons to individual bird calls, nature poems showcase the transformative power of the wild and our human influences on it. Classic nature poets used their verse to freeze a moment in time for others to experience. Modern nature poets look at the broader world, focusing on how humans affect the environment. Today, a few poets use their unique ties to the land to remember traditions and bring hope to the future.
Whether it’s Emily Dickinson’s delicate observations of nature, Mary Oliver’s deep love of the outdoors, or Joy Harjo’s ancestral connection to the environment, poems about nature touch on everything from the tranquility of rain to the determination of nature in the city to the urgency of climate change. They remind readers to pause and observe the world around them. It is full of beauty and inspiration, but it is also ever-changing and resilient.
Explore nature on the page and outdoors through these beautiful nature poems.
Classic Nature Poetry
“A Narrow Fellow in the Grass” – Emily Dickinson
Floating Island – Dorothy Wordsworth
To the Skylark – William Wordsworth
To Wild Swans at Coole – William Butler Yeats
Who Has Seen the Wind? – Christina Rosetti
Environmental Poetry
The Way Through the Woods – Rudyard Kipling
Praise the Rain – Joy Harjo
The Rainbow – Charlotte Richardson
Sonoran Desert Poem – Jake Skeets
On the Grasshopper and Cricket – John Keats
Poems on Urban Nature
Iowa City: Early April – Robert Hass
How the Milky Way Was Made – Natalie Diaz
The Tree Agreement – Elise Paschen
Drowning Creek – Ada Limon
Requiem for a Nest – Wanda Coleman
Poems Inspired By Birds
The Kingfisher – Mary Oliver
To the Cardinal, Attacking His Reflection in the Window – Leah Naomi Green
The Wild Geese – Victoria Chang
Hummingbird – Robin Becker
To a Marsh Hawk in Spring – Henry David Thoreau
Poems Inspired By Plants
Blackberry-Picking – Seamus Heaney
Wild Pansy – Lisa Bellamy
Faithful Forest – Alberto Rios
The Poppy – Jane Taylor
Trees at Night – Helene Johnson
Climate Change Poetry
Some Questions about the Storm – Hilda Raz
For a Coming Extinction – W. S. Merwin
When the Animals Leave this Place – Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
I Don’t Know What Will Kill Us First: The Race War or What We’ve Done to the Earth – Fatimah Asghar
Let Them Not Say – Jane Hirshfield
