This content is for members of the Write the World Community.
Ready to start writing? Young Writers and Educators, sign up below.
This prompt is no longer active.
Please select a new prompt to start writing a new piece.
Birdsong
poem —
Write a bird onomatopoeia.
Full Details
The writer Robert Macfarlane recently composed a poem using sounds that imitate its subject: a wren. Listen to Macfarlane
reading his wren spell, and then write your own poem using words that imitate or resemble the sound they are describing; words like “blurt” and “cackle”, or “chirp”, “ping pong”, “zip”, and “zoom” (these words are called onomatopoeias). In Macfarlane’s poem, copied below, notice how many onomatopoeias he uses, as well as how the pacing of the poem (through line length and syllables) matches the subject matter—the way Macfarlane constructs and delivers this poem almost sounds like a wren singing:
When wren whirrs from stone to furze
the world around her slows, for wren is
quick, so quick, she blurs the air
through which she flows, yes -
Rapid wren is needle, rapid wren is
pin — and wren’s song is sharp-song,
briar-song, thorn-song, and wren’s
flight is dart-flight, flick-flight,
light-flight, yes -
Each rent etches, stitches, switches,
glitches, yes -
Now you think you see wren, now you know
you don’t.
Need more inspiration? See Community Ambassadors
mindfruit and
seaomelette cast their own spells with these brilliant birdsongs.