5 of the best hunting poems to make my collection. Reading hunting poems is not for everyone I get that.
BUT… we all spend time in nature’s wilderness, we know the joy of a crisp clear morning, we know the excitement when a stick cracks, the thrill of sighting that big buck.
SO… how do we put these feelings into words? OR explain to others our love of hunting:-
One way is through hunting poems. I hope you enjoy them.
5 Inspirational Hunting Poems
Hunting Song: Richard Hovey
Oh, who would stay indoor, indoor,
When the horn is on the hill?
With the crisp air stinging, and the huntsmen singing,
And a ten-tined buck to kill!
Before the sun goes down, goes down,
We shall slay the buck of ten;
And the priest shall say benison, and we shall ha’e venison,
When we come home again.
Let him that loves his ease, his ease,
Keep close and house him fair;
He’ll still be a stranger to the merry thrill of danger
And the joy of the open air.
But he that loves the hills, the hills,
Let him come out to-day!
For the horses are neighing, and the hounds are baying,
And the hunt’s up, and away!
Home Is The Sailor: A.E.Houseman
Home is the sailor, home from sea:
Her far-borne canvas furled
The ship pours shining on the quay
The plunder of the world.
Home is the hunter from the hill:
Fast in the boundless snare
All flesh lies taken at his will
And every fowl of air.
‘Tis evening on the moorland free,
The starlit wave is still:
Home is the sailor from the sea,
The hunter from the hill.
A Hunters Prayer: S Elliott
“We pray our sights be straight and our aim be true
We pray for no pain to the game we pursue
We thank you, Lord for this land
We thank you for the sights from our stands
We pray for safety one and all
We pray we may return in the fall.”
Deer Hunting Time Is Here Again: Kathleen West
Deer hunting time is here again
And many hunters take to the woods
After months of planning with family and friends
They gather in common brotherhood
It’s a freedom that fills the soul of a man
With the peace of God’s nature all around
Lessons that have been taught since time began
And lifelong memories and friendships are found
Hunting is taught by tradition still yet
Knowledge passed on from man to man
And you’ll learn things that you’ll never forget
And respect nature more, our wildlife, and our land
So all you hunters enjoy this time
May you be skilled and have lots of luck
The Hunter Of The Prairies: William Cullen Bryant
AY, this is freedom!—these pure skies
Were never stained with village smoke:
The fragrant wind, that through them flies,
Is breathed from wastes by plough unbroke.
Here, with my rifle and my steed,
And her who left the world for me,
I plant me, where the red deer feed
In the green desert—and am free.
For here the fair savannas know
No barriers in the bloomy grass;
Wherever breeze of heaven may blow,
Or beam of heaven may glance, I pass.
In pastures, measureless as air,
The bison is my noble game;
The bounding elk, whose antlers tear
The branches, falls before my aim.
Mine are the river-fowl that scream
From the long stripe of waving sedge;
The bear, that marks my weapon’s gleam,
Hides vainly in the forest’s edge;
In vain the she-wolf stands at bay;
The brinded catamount, that lies
High in the boughs to watch his prey,
Even in the act of springing, dies.
With what free growth the elm and plane
Fling their huge arms across my way,
Gray, old, and cumbered with a train
Of vines, as huge, and old, and gray!
Free stray the lucid streams, and find
No taint in these fresh lawns and shades;
Free spring the flowers that scent the wind
Where never scythe has swept the glades.
Alone the Fire, when frostwinds sere
The heavy herbage of the ground,
Gathers his annual harvest here,
With roaring like the battle’s sound,
And hurrying flames that sweep the plain,
And smoke-streams gushing up the sky:
I meet the flames with flames again,
And at my door they cower and die.
Here, from dim woods, the aged past
Speaks solemnly; and I behold
The boundless future in the vast
And lonely river, seaward rolled.
Who feeds its founts with rain and dew?
Who moves, I ask, its gliding mass,
And trains the bordering vines, whose blue
Bright clusters tempt me as I pass?
Broad are these streams—my steed obeys,
Plunges, and bears me through the tide.
Wide are these woods—I thread the maze
Of giant stems, nor ask a guide.
I hunt, till day’s last glimmer dies
O’er woody vale and grassy height;
And kind the voice and glad the eyes,
That welcome my return at night.
I hope you enjoyed this short collection of what I consider to be some of the best hunting poems. I feel they capture our spirit of the hunt, our love of the wilderness and the excitement of the chase.
If you enjoy a chuckle check out these hunting jokes. OR See Fred Bears Commandments of Hunting