The Auk; The Orchid

Robert Williams Wood (1868–1955) · How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers and Other Woodcuts · 1917

We seldom meet, when out to walk,
Either the Orchid or the Auk.
The awk‑ward Auk is only known
To dwellers in the Auk‑tic zone,
While Orchids can be found in legions,
Within the equatorial regions.
So if by chance you travel on
The Lena or the Am‑a‑zon,
Be certain of the tem‑pera‑ture
Or you will make mistakes I’m sure.

Where this text comes from

First published in How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers and Other Woodcuts (1917). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-20.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/robert-williams-wood_how-to-tell-the-birds-from-the-flowers-and-other-woodcuts, how-to-tell-the-birds-from-the-flowers.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (3)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L10.

Cite this poem

Robert Williams Wood (1868–1955). “The Auk; The Orchid.” First published in How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers and Other Woodcuts (1917). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/robert-williams-wood/the-auk-the-orchid/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

More by Robert Williams Wood