The Faber Book of
BEASTS
edited by Paul Muldoon
S
faber and faber
LONDON • BOSTON
Contents
Introduction / xv
Abnegation
/ i
ADRIENNE RICH
Address to the Beasts
The Albatross
w. H. AUDEN / i
(after Baudelaire) / 4
CIARAN CARSON
Animal Acts
/4
CHARLES SIMIC
Apartment Cats
/5
THOM GUNN
An Appeal to Cats in the Business of Love
from Arcadia
Ariel
PHILIP SIDNEY
SYLVIA PLATH
The Armadillo
THOMAS FLATMAN
/ 6
/7
ELIZABETH BISHOP / 8
As the Team's Head-Brass
EDWARD THOMAS
from Astrophel and Stella
PHILIP SIDNEY
At Grass
PHILIP LARKIN
/
ROBERT FROST
WILLIAM BLAKE / 13
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
ANONYMOUS
Bat
II
/ 12
Auguries of Innocence
The Badger
/ 10
/ 11
At Woodward's Gardens
Baby Tortoise
/5
/ 17
/ 17
D . H. LAWRENCE
JOHN CLARE / 2.0
D. H. LAWRENCE / 22
The Bear
ROBERT FROST
/ 23
The Beasts' Confession to the Priest
JONATHAN SWIFT
from The Beggar's Opera
/ 30
from Beowulf
JOHN GAY
/ 31
ANONYMOUS
'A Bird came down the Walk'
EMILY DICKINSON
Birds' Nests
/ 37
EDWARD THOMAS
A Black November Turkey
A Blessing
Blue Moles
/ 24
RICHARD WILBUR
/ 36
/ 37
JAMES WRIGHT / 38
SYLVIA PLATH
/ 39
X
from The Book of Joel / 4O
The Book-Worms
ROBERT BURNS
/ 41
v /
The Bull Moses TED HUGHES / 41
Bullfrog TED HUGHES / 42
The Butterfly JOSEPH BRODSKY / 43
Cape Ann T. s. ELIOT / 48
The Captiv'd Bee ROBERT HERRICK / 49
The Cat and the Fiddle ANONYMOUS / 50
The Cat and the Moon w. B. YEATS / 50
Celia Upon Her Sparrow WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT / 51
Champagne MEDBH MCGUCKIAN / 52
from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage LORD BYRON / 52
Clock a Clay JOHN CLARE / 55
Cock-CrOW
EDWARD THOMAS / 55
Cock-Crowing HENRY VAUGHAN / 56
Cock Robin ANONYMOUS / 57
The Collar-Bone of a Hare w. B. YEATS / 59
The Combe EDWARD THOMAS / 60
Come In ROBERT FROST / 60
Considering the Snail THOM GUNN / 61
The Cow in Apple Time ROBERT FROST / 61
Cow in Calf SEAMUS HEANEY / 62
The Crocodile ANONYMOUS / 62
The Cuckoo ANONYMOUS / 64
The Cuckoo ANONYMOUS / 64
The Cuckoo Song ANONYMOUS / 64
Cynthia on Horseback PHILIP AYRES / 65
The Dalliance of the Eagles WALT WHITMAN / 65
The Darkling Thrush THOMAS HARDY / 66
Death of a Naturalist SEAMUS HEANEY / 67
The Death of a Toad RICHARD WILBUR / 68
Dehorning TED HUGHES / 68
Ding, Dong, Bell ANONYMOUS / 70
The Dog
c. K. WILLIAMS / 70
A Dog After Love YEHUDA AMICHAI / 72
Dogs in the Park LOUIS MACNEICE / 73
/ vi
The Donkey
G. K. CHESTERTON / 73
The Draft Horse
The Eagle
An Eel
/ 74
ROBERT FROST
from The Duchess of Malfi
/7s
JOHN WEBSTER
/ 75
ALFRED LORD TENNYSON
TED HUGHES / 76
The Elephant
JONATHAN SWIFT / 77
Elephants
LOUIS MACNEICE / 78
Elephants
MARIANNE MOORE / 79
Engraved on the Collar of a Dog which I Gave to His Royal Highness
ALEXANDER POPE / 8 1
Epigraph to Pagett, M.P.
Epitaph on a Hare
WILLIAM COWPER
from Essay on Man
The Fall of Rome
RUDYARD KIPLING
AUDEN
THOMAS HARDY
/ 85
TED HUGHES / 86
The Female of the Species
Fetching Cows
RUDYARD KIPLING
NORMAN MACCAIG
Fireflies in the Garden
The Fish
/ 83
/ 84
The Fallow Deer at the Lonely House
February 17th
8I
/ 8I
ALEXANDER POPE
w. H .
/
ROBERT FROST / 89
ELIZABETH BISHOP
/ 90
The Fish
MARIANNE MOORE
/ 92
The Flea
JOHN DONNE
/ 93
The Fly
WILLIAM BLAKE / 94
The Fly
MIROSLAV HOLUB / 95
A Fly about a Glasse of Burnt Claret
Foweles in the Frith
A Frog's Fate
ANONYMOUS
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
RICHARD LOVELACE
JOHN ASHBERY
The Goose and the Gander
Goose to Donkey
Goosey Gander
/ 98
ANONYMOUS
ANONYMOUS
WALT WHITMAN
/ 99
/ 100
LES MURRAY
Grand Chorus of Birds
/ 96
/ 98
'From Paumanok starting I fly like a bird'
Glazunoviana
/ 87
/ 89
/ 100
/ 101
/ 101
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE
(after Aristophanes) / 101
vii /
The Grasshopper
/ 103
RICHARD LOVELACE
The Grasshopper and the Ant (Jean de la Fontaine)
RICHARD WILBUR / IO5
The Great Horned Owl
The Green Linnet
CHARLES SIMIC
/ 106
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
/ 106
The Groundhog
RICHARD EBERHART / 107
The Groundlark
JOHN CLARE / 109
Hark! Hark! the Lark
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The Hart Loves the High Wood
The Heaven of Animals
ANONYMOUS
JAMES DICKEY / H O
The Heavy Bear who Goes with Me
The Hedgehog
Hen
/ 109
/ n o
DELMORE SCHWARTZ / H I
JOHN CLARE / 112
ZBIGNIEW HERBERT / 113
Hickory, Dickory, Dock
The Hippopotamus
/ 114
ANONYMOUS
T. s. ELIOT / 114
'His Mansion in the Pool'
EMILY DICKINSON
The Horse
FRANCIS PONGE
The Horse
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
The Horses
/ 115
/ 116
/ 118
EDWIN MUIR / 119
How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix
ROBERT BROWNING / 1 2 1
Humming-Bird
D . H . LAWRENCE
Hunting Season
The Hyaenas
I Am a Horse
/ 122
w. H . AUDEN / 123
RUDYARD KIPLING / 124
HANS ARP / 125
'I found an old textbook of animals'
I Have a Gentle Cock
'I heard a Fly buzz'
ANONYMOUS
YEHUDA AMICHAI
/ 126
/ 126
EMILY DICKINSON
/ 127
from An Imitation of the Sixth Satire of the Second Book of Horace
ALEXANDER POPE / 128
In Come de Animuls Two by Two
from The Inferno
ANONYMOUS
DANTE ALIGHIERI
/ 129
/ 131
Inscription on the Monument of a Newfoundland Dog
LORD BYRON / 134
/ viii
Jabberwocky
AJelly-Fish
/ 135
LEWIS CARROLL
/ 136
MARIANNE MOORE
Jim, Who Ran Away from His Nurse, and Was Eaten by a Lion
HILAIRE BELLOC / 1 3 7
Kerr's Ass
/ 138
PATRICK KAVANAGH
The Kilkenny Cats
The Kraken
/ 139
ANONYMOUS
ALFRED LORD TENNYSON
A Lady with a Falcon on her Fist
The Lamb
WILLIAM BLAKE
The Landrail
RICHARD LOVELACE
/ 140
/ 140
JOHN CLARE / 141
Leda and the Swan
w. B. YEATS / 143
Lines to a Dragon-Fly
Little Miss Muffet
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
/ 144
/ 144
ANONYMOUS
Little Trotty Wagtail
Littleblood
/ 139
JOHN CLARE / 145
/ 145
TED HUGHES
Long-Legged Fly w. B. YEATS / 146
Lullaby for Titania
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE / 147
Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island,
Minnesota
JAMES WRIGHT / 147
The Maldive Shark
The Man-Moth
Moly
HERMAN MELVILLE
ELIZABETH BISHOP
/ 148
/ 148
THOM GUNN / 150
The Moose
ELIZABETH BISHOP
/ 151
The Most of It
ROBERT FROST
Mountain Lion
D . H. LAWRENCE
The Mouse's Nest
The Mower
JOHN CLARE
PHILIP LARKIN
/ 156
/ 158
/ 159
The Mower to the Glowworms
Mr Edwards and the Spider
/ 156
ANDREW MARVELL
c
ROBERT LOWELL / 160
My Cat Jeoffry
CHRISTOPHER SMART / 161
A Name for All
HART CRANE
The Names of the Hare
/ 159
/ 164
ANONYMOUS
'A narrow Fellow in the Grass'
/ 164
EMILY DICKINSON
Never Again Would Birds' Song Be the Same
/ 166
ROBERT FROST
/ 167
ix /
The Nightingale
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
The Nightingale
PHILIP SIDNEY
A Noiseless Patient Spider
/ 167
/ 170
WALT WHITMAN
The Nun's Lament for Philip Sparrow
/ 171
JOHN SKELTON
/ 172
The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Faun
ANDREW MARVELL / 174
'O Nightingale'
/ 177
JOHN MILTON
October Salmon
TED HUGHES / 177
Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes
THOMAS GRAY / 1 7 9
Ode to a Nightingale
from The Odyssey
JOHN KEATS / 181
HOMER
/ 183
Of the Pythagorean Philosophy
On a Cock at Rochester
JOHN DRYDEN
/ 187
SIR CHARLES SEDLEY
On a Dog of Lord Eglinton's
ROBERT BURNS
(after Ovid) / 185
/ 188
On Seeing a Wounded Hare Limp by Me, Which a Fellow had just
Shot at ROBERT BURNS / 188
from Oppian's Halieuticks
An Otter
TED HUGHES
The Otter
WILLIAM DIAPER
/ 189
SEAMUS HEANEY
/ 191
'Our little Kinsmen - after Rain'
Out in the Dark
The Outlaw
/ 192
SEAMUS HEANEY / 193
THOMAS HARDY
Parley of Beasts
EDWARD LEAR / 194
/ 195
HUGH MACDIARMID / 196
from The Parliament of Fowls
The Partridge
G
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS
from The Pied Piper of Hamelin
/ 201
TED HUGHES / 2O6
The Polar Bear
/ X
/ 199
ROBERT BROWNING
PigS LES MURRAY / 2O6
Pike
/ 196
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
JOHN CLARE / 198
The Phoenix and the Turtle
Pied Beauty
/ 192
EMILY DICKINSON
EDWARD THOMAS
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat
The Oxen
/ 189
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
/ 208
/ 202
Pretty Baa Lamb
/ 208
CRAIG RAINE
The Pride of Youth
'Repeat that, repeat'
WALLACE STEVENS
GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS
Riddles from The Exeter Book
The Ride
/ 209
SIR WALTER SCOTT
A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts
/ 211
/ 211
/ 213
RICHARD WILBUR
Ride a Cock-Horse
ANONYMOUS
/ 210
/ 214
ANONYMOUS
from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE / 214
Robin, Wren, Martin, Swallow
A Rum Cove, a Stout Cove
A Runnable Stag
The Silver Swan
ANONYMOUS
/ 227
THEODORE ROETHKE
The Snail
WILLIAM COWPER
The Snail
RICHARD LOVELACE
The Snare
/ 230
/ 230
/ 235
THOMAS HARDY
The Song of the Jellicles
from Song of Myself
T. S. ELIOT
SYLVIA PLATH
Sweet Road
MARIN SORESCU
/ 235
/ 236
WALT WHITMAN
The Swarm
/ 237
/ 243
/ 245
Take One Home for the Kiddies
Tamer and Hawk
/ 229
/ 232
JAMES STEPHENS
Snow in the Suburbs
/ 225
/ 228
JOHN CLARE
D. H. LAWRENCE
/ 221
/ 225
The Sloth
Snake
PHILIP LARKIN
This Little Pig
ANONYMOUS../
/ 245
/ 245
THOM GUNN
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
The Thought-Fox
/ 220
/ 226
ROBERT LOWELL
The Sky Lark
/ 218
ANONYMOUS
SEAMUS HEANEY
Skunk Hour
/ 217
/ 217
GALWAY KINNELL
JAMES THOMSON
Sing a Song of Sixpence
The Skunk
TOM PAULIN
JOHN DAVIDSON
Saint Francis and the Sow
from The Seasons
ANONYMOUS
WALLACE STEVENS
/ 246
248
TED HUGHES
/ 249
xi /
t,h;r:u;s,h;e:s
Thrushes
E. E. CUMMINGS / 249
TED HUGHES / 250
To a Butterfly
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH / 251
To the Cuckoo
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
To the Ladybug
/ 251
/ 252
ANONYMOUS
To a Louse, On Seeing one on a Lady's Bonnet at Church
ROBERT BURNS / 253
To a Mouse, On Turning her up in her Nest, with the Plough,
November, 1785
To a Sky-Lark
To a Skylark
To a Snail
ROBERT BURNS / 254
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY / 256
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH / 259
To a Squirrel at Kyle-na-no
To a Young Ass
To the Snipe
Toad
/ 259
MARIANNE MOORE
w. B. YEATS / 260
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
JOHN CLARE / 261
NORMAN MACCAIG / 264
The Trout
Turkeys
/ 265
JOHN MONTAGUE
JOHN CLARE / 265
The Twa Corbies
TWO DogS
The Tyger
LES MURRAY / 268
CHRISTOPHER REID
WILLIAM BLAKE
Upon a Snail
/ 272
JOHN BUNYAN
The Victor Dog
View of a Pig
EDWARD TAYLOR
JAMES MERRILL
TED HUGHES
/ 268
/ 271
Upon a Spider Catching a Fly
The Vulture
/ 267
ANONYMOUS
Two Dogs on a Pub Roof
/ 272
/ 274
°
/ 275
HILAIRE BELLOC / 276
Wagtail and Baby
THOMAS HARDY
/ 277
from Waiting for Godot
SAMUEL BECKETT
The Whale
/ 278
ANONYMOUS
'Where the bee sucks, there suck I'
from The White Devil
/ 277
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
JOHN WEBSTER
The White-Tailed Hornet
/ xii
/ 260
/ 281
ROBERT FROST
/ 281
/ 280
'Who so list to hount, I knowe where is an hynde'
THOMAS WYATT / 283
Widgeon
SEAMUS HEANEY / 284
The Wild Swans at Coole
The Windhover
w. B. YEATS / 284
GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS / 2 8 s
WodwO TED HUGHES / 286
Yoko THOM GUNN / 287
The Zebras ROY CAMPBELL / 288
Acknowledgements / 290
Index of Poets / 294
xiii /