Hens

For millennia, poets have tried to describe the animals in their lives. Some of the most famous verses concern a particular creature—wild or adorable or filthy or dignified—closely observed.; looking up at sweeping across the sky; D. H. Lawrence tenderly cheering on a , “a tiny, fragile, half-animate bean.” Coming face-to-face with these strange beings, so seemingly separate from the human realm, poets have expressed wonder, bewilderment, and sometimes discomfort. A single animal, after all, can push us to consider our relationship to species of this world. It can make us question how different we are, really, from the beasts staring back at us.