The Faber Book of Beasts

by Paul Muldoon (Editor)

The Faber Book of Beasts is a collection of many of the best poems in English about the creatures who share our planet. The animal kingdom has prompted some of the liveliest and most enjoyable writing by poets, from Homer to our contemporaries. Among the creatures gathered here, tame or wild; common or exotic, are mammals, reptiles, birds, insects, and others perhaps more fanciful than real. A zoologist's delight.

There is, too, a moral or philosophical purpose. As Paul Muldoon says in his introduction: 'We are most human in the presence of animals.' And it is just this sense of how our humanity is illuminated by the contemplation of bestial life that he has set out to celebrate. The results are wonderfully rich and thought-provoking.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, Classics, Anthologies, Animals, Literature, Nature

295 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Born in Northern Ireland, Muldoon currently resides in the US and teaches at Princeton University. He held the chair of Professor of Poetry at Oxford University from 1999 through 2004. In September 2007, Muldoon became the poetry editor of The New Yorker.

Awards:
1992: Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for Madoc: A Mystery
1994: T. S. Eliot Prize for The Annals of Chile
1997: Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Poetry for New Selected Poems 1968–1994
2002: T. S. Eliot Prize (shortlist) for Moy Sand and Gravel
2003: Griffin Poetry Prize (Canada) for Moy Sand and Gravel
2003: Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Moy Sand and Gravel
2004: American Ireland Fund Literary Award
2004: Aspen Prize
2004: Shakespeare Prize

Reviews

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

studied for my first year of university, this poetry anthology spanning centuries of various poets' work is where the traditions of animal poetry shine. the collection will vary with your perception depending on one's taste, and for me, overall, was a mixed bag. with this in mind, highlights of the anthology for me were the poems of emily dickinson, robert frost, lord byron, and thomas hardy.

- 3.5 stars.

[Samir Rawas Sarayji · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful compilation of poetry including both old and new. The unifying theme is beasts, whether it is just a mention of a beast in a poem or a poem completely revolving around one, if it fits the criteria of Muldoon then he's included it. Another interesting aspect is that the poems are published alphabetically according to the type of beast featured. The collection includes poets such as Ted Hughes, D.H. Lawrence, Robert Browning, Emily Dickinson and many others.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've always found poems unfulfilling to read; it seems like they end either far too quickly or drag on for far too long - there never seems to be an in-between. This was read as part of my university course and whilst I'm grateful for the opportunity to have been able to experience the writings of an eclectic mix of poets, I'm also rather disappointed that only a handful truly appealed to me.

[Daphne Harries · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally got around to reading this! It’s organised alphabetically (my LEAST favourite way to compose anthologies like this). It felt a bit frustrating bouncing between different species of animals because of the way it was organised. The composition seems to implicitly reinforce that idea of ‘animals’ without distinction, but fails to put a poem about humans in here (are we not the most ferocious beasts??)

The poems themselves are VERY good. We have nursery rhymes, riddles from the Exeter Book, and an abundance of Nightingale poems. All across periods of time, but nearly all English poets. I think if the book was organised by habitat (land, sky, sea) and included more poetry from across the world it would be a brilliant study of how animals have been represented across time AND the world. The parallels and contrasts would be a lot easier to spot, and there would be a sense of cohesion. As it stands, anthology isn’t bad! It just could’ve done with a better layout.

[soph · Rating 3 out of 5]

some stunning fragments and poems, others didn't move me. a mixed read

[Jacquie Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of animal based poems. Favourites of mine were Baby Tortoise by D. H Lawrence, The Female of the Species by Rudyard Kipling and The Sloth by Theodore Roethke but poetry is a more personal thing than books I think

[-`ˏ jenn ˎ´˗]

// read for class!

[Wilhelmina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

many snails

[Hayley Hemming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Needed to read for uni course that I'm starting in Jan. Took a while to read because of work and I liked trying to read between the lines and figure out what certain poems were saying

[Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book of anthology. I love the way the works have been ordered alphabetically, it means that you don't get a cluster of poems written in a certain era, as a reader you get surprise and variety.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been powering through this book the past few days for my course. Well half for my course and half for myself, because not every poem needed to be read but I wanted to know for sure which poems i liked in this and you can only really do that if you read the whole anthology.

Anyway. Not every poem appealed to me, but that doesn't take the talent away from the authors. I liked the way it way it was organised. It's in alphabetical order, by poem title, so there's a nice mix of style, era of language and metre.

To name a few poems I liked, though not all because I do actually need to get back to work:

Auguries of Innocence by William Blake
A bird came down the walk by Emily Dickinson
The captiv'd Bee by Robert Herrick
Cock Robin by Anonymous
The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy
Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney
A frog's fate by Christina Rosetti
The Great Horned Owl by Charles Simic
In Come De Animals Two By Two by Anonymous
Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
A noiseless patient spider by Walt Whitman
Ode to the death of a favourite cat, drowned in a tub of goldfishes by Thomas Gray
Repeat that, Repeat by Gerrard Manley Hopkins
The sloth by Theodore Roethke
The thought Fox by Ted Hughes
To a mouse, on turning up her nest with the plough, November 1785 by Robert Burns
Two dogs on a pub roof by Christopher Reid
The Zebras by Roy Campbell

There are others but these are the ones I've listed for a task in my work. A great book though, I've only ever found one other Anthology that I liked as much and that's only if you can class The Friendship Book as an anthology

[Jamrock · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a set book for AA100, a core module of B.A. English Literature (and most Humanities undergraduate courses). I haven't ready every poem in this book as many take significant effort to analyse but I've read all the ones required for the module and skimmed the whole book to create my own mini-anthology. Poetry was a branch of literature that had previously eluded me and I've subsequently learned that poems are much like those 2D linear drawings; once someone has shown you how to look at them they fold-open to reveal magical 3D landscapes that never quite look the same each time you revisit them. At least now, with poetry, I know enough to know what I don't know (pretty much everything!).

It probably deserves five stars, the missing star signifies my lack of ability to fully appreciate the complete anthology.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection is quite a mixed bag and not everything will suit one person's taste. For me, it was a revelation to discover some great poets ... and also learn some to avoid. My favourite poet's featured in this book are Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Elizabeth Bishop, DH Lawrence, Thom Gunn, William Shakespeare and Walt Whitman.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely selection of animal poetry.

[Mandy]

Read what I needed to for the course, but haven't read any more. I find poetry offputting.

[Ceri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good anthology. I've covered the chapter on my OU course dealing with this book so I'm marking it read although I haven't read every poem.

[Ophelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the poems within this book were of generally excellent quality and choice (with some minor exceptions, but that is due to personal taste), and I was delighted, and shocked, and saddened again and again, I found the book lacked structure. I was not being led through a maze or menagerie, nor was I taken on any categorical adventure. In fact the poems seemed to be placed entirely at random throughout the collection, with no pattern to speak of at all. I am not saying, by any means, that I would have liked the book to be structured by poet, date, or animal, as this would have stripped it of charisma, but when one is collecting a series of poetry for publication, one has only three jobs: to find the poems, attain the rights to the poems, and then organise them, the final task of which seems to have had no thought put into it at all.
Otherwise, this book was a delight, and I would very much recommend it, especially 'Toad' by Norman Maccaig on page 264 (though I am a little biased, as frogs and toads are my favourite animals).

[Jaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 ⭐️

I read this anthology as part of my studies - I did really enjoy some of these poems. It was very surprising as I’ve never really reached for poetry before perhaps because I didn’t always understand it.

However looking at it from a writers perspective I’ve come to appreciate it much more, and use it in a way to inspire writing.

These beasty poems range from all sorts especially anthropomorphism. I enjoyed metaphors before however diving deeper into poetry from a literary device point of view was rather refreshing for me and has painted poetry in a whole new light - to the point where I’d like to read other anthologies of poetry!

[Amelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 stars. I read this book for university. It was okay. It was a good anthology of a wide range of poets, some undoubtedly better than others. Some poems were funny, some were cute, some were just downright strange.
Animal poetry isn't really my thing, but there were some that I did really enjoy, which is what brought the rating up slightly. Others were just dull and couldn't capture my attention and interest.

[Eloise Luscombe · Rating 4 out of 5]

First book and review of the year! And an amazing start as well, a cornucopia of different poems with something for everyone. I read this as I have to study it for Uni at some point and thought I would get ahead slightly on the reading. However, it was truly an amazing experience on its own and was so interesting to see all the different styles of poems written by different authors all about animals. Truly enjoyable :)

[Ali Chakir · Rating 5 out of 5]

probably the most defined anthology I have read. The introduction is good and the alphabetical layout, rather than chronological, creates some interesting couplings amongst the selected poems. This is a really great anthology selected from many centuries of poetry

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book of animal poems.

I had to contrast Cowper's Epitaph for a Hare with Larkin's Take One Home for the Kiddies for an essay. Delightful stuff! Inspired me to take up reading poetry again.

[Jen B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the poetry in this collection is worth much higher than 2 stars but as an anthology I just feel like they googled "poems about animals" and threw them all in without checking for quality. Bit gimmicky

[Bethany Fletcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a uni textbook that we only had to read two poems from! After having spent nearly £10 on it I was gonna read the whole damn thing, not just two poems. It wasn’t worth £10.
It was fine. It wasn’t great. I wouldn’t read it again.

[Kieran · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very interesting and diverse anthology of poems. Paul Muldoon has ensured that there is a poem to suit every taste, and the different styles really reflect the different traditions within animal poetry.

[Nicola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nhl

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

been dipping in and out of this for a little while... discovered Tennyson is fantastic and Emily Dickinson is overrated.

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would describe the book as ‘OK’ ...

[sash]

*for uni*

[Erin Walseth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book. The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop is one of my favourites.