Birds and Other Beast

There is tremendous variety in form theme and tone in thepoems in this volume. Many of the poems may strike thereader as corroboration of Thoreaus view of wildness andwilderness because Peakes love of wild things forms hispoetic center but this book also includes intense love poemsas well as celebrations of birds and trees and lightning bugs.Though Peake celebrates nature he does not view it withsentimentality. He faces without tears a world in which onecreature preys upon another for survival and he looks withoutfear to the revelry of the grave when his form becomes foodfor worms and feeds the laurel bushes growing over him.According to critic John Lang Peakes poems reveal a poetwhose ear is attuned to the music of words His poems aboundin beautiful lines and images: The black-necked waders cryin their wet fields for example and skies the white-faced ibissoars. Such lines embody in Fred Chappells phrase the eyesjoy. Like Peakes descriptions of finding a rare green kingfisher for readers of his poems Delight follows discovery.