ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I

began this book with the realization that while poetry has helped

me to see, explore, and understand the complexity of the nonhuman

animals in the world around me, there has been relatively little writ-

ten about the relationship between animals and poetry. I have been

inspired too by the rise of animal studies in literature, philosophy, and

cultural studies, finding myself in the usual situation of having personal

passion and interest align to some degree with what is (or was) new in

the world of criticism and theory.

Many people have helped me along the way. Andrew Peart, while a

dazzling undergraduate at Hamilton College, worked with me early

on to find and collect poems about animals. His deep knowledge of

twentieth-century American poetry, and his insight into individual

poems, helped me get the book under way and informs my discussions of

several specific poems. Tobias Menely, now at UC Davis, has also con-

tributed enormously to the book; discussions with him have deepened

my understanding of what matters in thinking about the representation

of animals in literature, and his published work has been influential in

my own thinking. My colleagues at Hamilton College have given me

enormous support, as has the college itself, in terms of sabbaticals and

publishing subventions. Wendy Lochner, Christine Dunbar, and Michael

Simon at Columbia University Press have also provided much assistance.