An anthology of poems about creatures of many kinds, including some perhaps more fanciful than real. The poets range from Homer to the present.

''The Faber Book of Beasts is a generous and intelligent round- up of old favourites, new juxtapositions, and poems we mightn''t know about ... Will set heads shaking, as well as nodding with pleasure.'' Independent

William Wordsworth''s ''To a Skylark''
W.B. Yeats'' ''Leda and the Swan''
Elizabeth Bishop''s ''The Moose''
D.H. Lawrence''s ''Bat''
Marianne Moore''s ''Elephants''
William Blake''s ''The Tyger''
Gerard Manley Hopkins'' ''The Windhover''
Thom Gunn''s ''The Snail''
Seamus Heaney''s ''Otter''
John Donne''s ''The Flea''
Christopher Smart''s ''My Cat Jeoffry''
''Baa Baa Black Sheep''

From childhood rhymes to canonical classics, Homer to Ted Hughes, this eclectic poetry anthology celebrating the earth''s creatures brims with beastly delights. Celebrated poet Paul Muldoon''s bestiary shows that we are ''most human in the presence of animals'', whether tame or wild, common or exotic, mammals or reptiles, real or imaginary - and the result is a must-read for animal-lovers of all ages everywhere.

''Animals bring the best out in us [and make] the best art ... Elephants, skunks, otters, hedgehogs and hippos feature in Muldoon's menagerie; how charming it is to observe how they nuzzle along together in his engaging anthology.'' Irish Times