Opening their golden caskets to the sun, The buttercups make schoolboys eager run, To see who shall be first to pluck the prize- Up from their hurry see the Skylark flies, And oer her half-formed nest, with happy wings, winnows the air till in the cloud she sings, Then hangs a dust spot in the sunny skies, And drops and drops till in her nest she lies, Which they unheeded passed-not dreaming then That birds, which flew so high, would drop again To nests upon the ground, which anything May come at to destroy.
"Poems Chiefly From Manuscript"
John Clare
Her large fan winnows wind towards her heated faceneck and embonpoint.
"Ulysses"
James Joyce
It was a striking example of how the first blast of battle winnows the wheat from the chaff, and its best result was to give Paul Jones a command of his own.
"American Men of Action"
Burton E. Stevenson