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Animal poetry is found across cultures and can feature a variety of creatures, from pets to bats. Poets use animal attributes metaphorically to represent human emotion. Examples include Mary Oliver’s use of wild geese as a symbol of belonging and Elizabeth Bishop’s exploration of the beauty in a fish’s life. Animal poetry can also explore the relationship between humans and animals, as seen in William Stafford’s “Traveling Through the Dark” and Emily Dickinson’s study of a snake. Children’s animal poetry often offers a sweet silliness, as seen in Edward Lear’s “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat.”
People share the world with animals, and many poets find their inspiration by visiting creatures in their lairs, both literally and figuratively. While it’s a safe bet that more poetry is written about the kinds of animals that touch the human heart like pets, beautiful songbirds, or animals that people see as cute, like squirrels, there are plenty of poems that celebrate it all, from bats to fish. Examples of animal poetry can be found across cultures in poems as small as a haiku, as complex as a sonnet, or as joyous and downright ridiculous as those written for children.
The poem is not only often populated by animals, but uses some of their attributes metaphorically. Animal poetry that features the eternal silence of a giraffe, the leaping grace of a gazelle, or the ferocity of a lion could be used to represent human emotion. The habits of the species may be another source of metaphors; for example, Mary Oliver uses the flight of wild geese as a symbol of belonging.
Poets like Elizabeth Bishop even make connections between the aquatic underworld and the human dimension. In her poem “The Fish,” the narrator catches a huge, vividly described and very ugly fish. Throughout the poem, however, the fisherman realizes a deeper beauty in the fish’s life and struggle; scarred as he is, he has clearly lived.
The narrative interaction between the poet and a particular beast can also become the subject of animal poetry. William Stafford’s “Traveling Through the Dark” poignantly explores the line between life and death through the image of a pregnant doe killed by a car, whose fawn is momentarily still alive. While the poem focuses on the deer, it is ultimately about the kind of choices humans are forced to make.
Shy Emily Dickenson studies a snake, “a close companion in the grass” with the eye of a child scientist. She sees the serpent with a kind of purity, like “The grass divides as with a comb.” While the snake’s unexpected appearance leaves her breathless, she also finds the snake, as with other creatures, welcoming and full of “Friendliness.”
Children love and identify with animals even more than adults. Animal poetry for young readers often offers a sweet silliness, as found in Edward Lear’s “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat.” As any young person knows, cats stalk birds in hopes of killing and eating them. Some children may recognize that there are exceptions; larger birds, such as owls, may be hunters instead. In this poem, however, these two mismatched creatures fall in love, take a boat out to sea, and get married.
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