What is "wild geese"

n. (wild goose English)

Wild Geese may refer to:

• Goose or sometimes specifically the greylag goose
• Wild Geese (soldiers), Irish soldiers who served in European armies after being exiled from Ireland
  • The Wild Geese Memorial erected at Rockingham, Western Australia to commemorate the Catalpa rescue of Fenian prisoners
• Wild Geese (song), a war poem by Walter Flex, a later song is popular in airborne units
• Wild Geese, a 1986 poem by Mary Oliver
• The Wild Geese (Mori novel), a 1911 Japanese novel written by Mori Ogai
• Wild Geese (novel), a 1925 Canadian novel (by Martha Ostenso)
• The Wild Geese (Carney novel), a novel written by Daniel Carney
• The Wild Geese, a 1978 British mercenary war film based on Carney's novel
  • Wild Geese II, a 1985 sequel to the above
• Code Name: Wild Geese a 1980 Italian mercenary war film
• Wild Geese (video ballad), a 2006 English video ballad
• Wild Geese, the name of Rize and Sharo's rabbit from Is the Order a Rabbit?
• Wild Geese GAA
• London Irish Amateur, also called London Irish Wild Geese

Wild Geese is a Canadian novel of the historical fiction genre written by the author Martha Ostenso, first published in 1925 by Dodd, Mead and Company. The story is set on the prairies of Manitoba, Canada in the 1920s. The novel details characters struggling against victimization to achieve a better life and follow their respective passions. Although the novel is primarily a realist novel, it does contain naturalist themes, especially in the subject of comparing Canadian wild geese to the progression of time and the inevitability of fate, as well as pathetic fallacy elements.

Wildgänse rauschen durch die Nacht (Wild geese rush through the night) is a war poem by Walter Flex. It was published in 1917 in his poem book Im Felde zwischen Nacht und Tag (In the (battle) field between day and night). The poem was also part of his 1916 novel Der Wanderer zwischen beiden Welten (The wanderer between both worlds).

The lyrics got popular through an adaption in a song created by Robert Götz. Götz tune did exist as early as 1916 but the Wild Geese song found a widespread recognition by usage in the Wandervogel movement / Bündische Jugend society during the late 1920s. The tragic lyrics pose an interesting contrast to the marching tune which found adoption in other societies as well. Apart from national Studentenverbindung fraternities it is a traditional song in the Austrian and German army.

The song is also popular in the French army in its French version "Les Oies Sauvages". The version of the French Foreign Legion has also overtaken the first stanza of the German lyrics as its fourth stanza. Furthermore the topic of wild geese rushing through the night has become a symbol of airborne troops though there is no widespread English translation so far.