BOOK OF ANIMAL POEMS

Another handsome, hefty, unhackneyed collection to stand next to Cole's The Birds and the Beasts Were There (1963). Contributors range from Hillaire Belloc, Russell Hoban and May Swenson to Richard Eberhart, Marge Piercy and W. D. Snodgrass; D. H. Lawrence is the poet most heavily represented (eight selections), but there are many unknowns or little knowns whose general level falls between respectable and grand. A sample, from somewhere along the scale, is Robert Sund's ""Afternoon,/ with just enough of a breeze for him to ride it/ lazily, a hawk/ sails still-winged/ up the slope of a stubble-covered hill,/ so low/ he nearly/ touches his shadow.