Anyone Who Loves The Outdoors Should Read These 11 Poems

Some things can speak to us without saying a word and evoke feelings that lie beyond the reach of human language. If you’ve ever watched the sunrise in the mountains, felt the ground shake after a thunder or were put to sleep by the soundless waltz of five thousand gleaming stars, you’ll know our world is full of wonders which by the virtue of their fundamental beauty will forever elude any attempt a man can make to do them justice with ink.

And yet we try. Poems, novels, songs, paintings and even religions have praised nature since the day we’ve learned to articulate our thoughts and emotions, and today we continue our efforts with the aid of cameras, recorders and drones. While it’s easy to visit Instagram, buy a copy of National Geographic or turn on the Discovery Channel and revel in a lifetime’s worth of sublime photography and stunning footage of our planet, written word injects our hearts with that quaint romance of the time long past and a sense of connection with the many generations that knew no other way to express their passions.

Below is a short list of my favourite poems and excerpts to stir your soul when the country is far and your spirits low. Read, learn, enjoy and share with your friends and family next time you’re out!

Photo: Austin Jackson

Grass

“The grass so little has to do, --

A sphere of simple green,

With only butterflies to brood,

And bees to entertain,

And even when it dies, to pass

In odours so divine,

As lowly spices gone to sleep,

Or amulets of pine.

And then to dwell in sovereign barns,

And dream the days away, --

The grass so little has to do,

I wish I were the hay!”

-- Emily Dickson

Photo: Jakub Konieczynski

Night On The Mountain

The fog has risen from the sea and crowned

The dark, untrodden summits of the coast,

Where roams a voice, in canyons uttermost,

From mid­night waters vibrant and profound.

High on each granite altar dies the sound,

Deep as the trampling of an armored host,

Lone as the lamentation of a ghost,

Sad as the diapason of the drowned.

The mountain seems no more a soulless thing,

But rather as a shape of ancient fear,

In darkness and the winds of Chaos born

Amid the lordless heavens’ thundering–

A Presence crouched, enormous and austere,

Before whose feet the mighty waters mourn.

-- George Sterling

I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Outdid the sparkling waves in glee;

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company;

I gazed-and gazed-but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

When is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

-- William Wordsworth

Earth Voices (an excerpt)

"I Heard the spring wind whisper

Above the brushwood fire,

"The world is made forever

Of transport and desire.

"I am the breath of being,

The primal urge of things;

I am the whirl of star dust,

I am the lift of wings.

"I am the splendid impulse

That comes before the thought,

The joy and exaltation

Wherein the life is caught.

"Across the sleeping furrows

I call the buried seed,

And blade and bud and blossom

Awaken at my need.

"Within the dying ashes

I blow the sacred spark,

And make the hearts of lovers

To leap against the dark."

-- Bliss Carman

Photo: Jakub Konieczynski

Heart of the Hills

If but for the span of a moment I swam in the aura of flame;

I caught the rapt secret of being clothed by the Ineffable Name.

And chastened with wonder and strengthened to meet life's beleaguering ills

I went, like a bondman unfettered, adown from the heart of the hills.

-- Clinton Scollard

 The Cloud

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,

From the seas and the streams;

I bear light shade for the leaves when laid

In their noonday dreams.

From my wings are shaken the dews that waken

The sweet buds every one,

When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,

As she dances about the sun.

I wield the flail of the lashing hail,

And whiten the green plains under,

And then again I dissolve it in rain,

And laugh as I pass in thunder.

-- Percy Bysshe Shelley

 To The Rainbow

TRIUMPHANT arch! that fill'st the sky

When storms prepare to part,

I ask not proud philosophy

To teach me what thou art:-

Still seem, as to my childhood's sight,

A midway station given,

For happy spirits to alight

Betwixt the earth and heaven.

Can all that optics teach unfold

Thy form to please me so,

As when I dreamt of gems and gold

Hid in thy radiant bow?

When science from creation's face

Enchantment's veil withdraws,

What lovely visions yield their place

To cold material laws!

And yet, fair bow! no fabling dreams,

But words of the Most High,

Have told why first thy robe of beams

Was woven in the sky.

-- Joanna Baillie

Photo: Jakub Konieczynski

The River

I came from the sunny valleys

And sought for the open sea,

For I thought in its gray expanses

My peace would come to me.

I came at last to the ocean

And found it wild and black,

And I cried to the windless valleys,

"Be kind and take me back!"

But the thirsty tide ran inland,

And the salt waves drank of me,

And I who was fresh as the rainfall

Am bitter as the sea.

-- Sara Teasdale

The Ocean

The Ocean has its silent caves,

Deep, quiet, and alone;

Though there be fury on the waves,

Beneath them there is none.

The awful spirits of the deep

Hold their communion there;

And there are those for whom we weep,

The young, the bright, the fair.

Calmly the wearied seamen rest

Beneath their own blue sea.

The ocean solitudes are blest,

For there is purity.

The earth has guilt, the earth has care,

Unquiet are its graves;

But peaceful sleep is ever there,

Beneath the dark blue waves.

-- Nathaniel Hawthorne

Teach Me Your Mood, O Patient Stars

Teach me your mood, O patient stars!

Who climb each night the ancient sky,

Leaving on space no shade, no scars,

No trace of age, no fear to die.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson