Bestiary: An Anthology of Poems about Animals [Hardcover]

Stephen Mitchell (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 21, 1996

In Bestiary, Stephen Mitchell has collected animal poems from many ages and many cultures. He includes excerpts from ancient masterpieces like “The Hymn to the Sun” by Pharaoh Amen-hotep IV, The Book of Job, and The Book of Psalms; haiku by Basho, Buson, and Issa; poems by Milton and Smart, Blake and Burns, Whitman and Emily Dickenson, Hardy and Hopkins... This is a gook of passionate and humorous encounters with the vibrant world of animals.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Stephen Mitchell’s Tao Te Ching:

“Stephen Mitchell’s rendition comes as close to being definitive for our time as any I can imagine.”
- Huston Smith, author of The World’s Religions

“Mitchell’s great talent is to communicate with the profound simplicity utterly appropriate for this task. The obscure has been made transparent and available.”
- Common Boundary

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Frog Books (October 21, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 188331948X
• ISBN-13: 978-1883319489
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #928,706 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen Mitchell was born in Brooklyn in 1943, educated at Amherst, the Sorbonne, and Yale, and de-educated through intensive Zen practice. His many books include the bestselling Tao Te Ching, The Gospel According to Jesus, Bhagavad Gita, The Book of Job, Meetings with the Archangel, Gilgamesh, and the forthcoming The Second Book of the Tao. When he is not writing, he likes to ' in no particular order ' think about writing, think about not writing, not think about writing, and not think about not writing. His favorite color is blue, which happens to be the color of his wife's eyes. You can read extensive excerpts from all his books on his website, www.stephenmitchellbooks.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Poetry Satisfaction, July 30, 2007

By 

Michelle Alberigi McKenzie "Owner McKenzie Bo... (Grass Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Bestiary: An Anthology of Poems about Animals (Hardcover)

The Random House College Dictionary defines : bestiary (bes' che er' e) a collection of moralized descriptions of actual or mythical animals.

Stephen Mitchell chose some of the best poems and haikus ever written about animals for his anthology. "My main requirement, besides quality" he writes, "has been that a poet see the animal with a clear mind - not as a metaphor or symbol, but as it is in itself - and write from a place of deep empathy, entering the animal and, to a greater or lesser extent, becoming one with it." To sample a few:


Old pond,
Frog jumps in -
Splash. --Basho


Hedgehog

He ambles along like a walking pin cushion,
Stops and curls up like a chestnut burr.
He's not worried because he's so little.
Nobody is going to slap him around. ---Chu Chen Po



Don't kill that fly!
Look - It's wringing it's hands,
Wringing it's feet. ---Issa

Among the many offerings, are poems by William Carlos Williams, Rainer Maria Rilke, Yeats, William Cullen Bryant, Thomas Hardy, Robert Burns, D.H. Lawrence, Robinson Jeffers, and Emily Dickinson.

A bird came down the walk-
He did not know I saw-
He bit an angleworm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw, ---Emily Dickinson

Tyger tyger, burning bright,
In the forest of the night
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry.
---William Blake from "The Tyger"


The poems in this volume do , indeed, meet Mitchell's requirements. Pure poetry satisfaction!