Man and Beast

Bert Almon is a professor of English at the University of Alberta. He is
the author of Calling Texas, Earth Prime, and Mind the Gap.

It is probably unprecedented for an elephant-keeper to write a
collection of poetry. Eric Cole works at the Toronto Zoo. His poems are
almost entirely sonnets (they wear their rhymes lightly, but he uses the
structure of the sonnet very well). He gives us close looks at a variety
of creatures, including some rather odd humans. The great poems about
animals in the modern period were written by Marianne Moore, who caged
her beast in eccentric stanzas, and Ted Hughes, whose concern was
empathetic identification with wild things. Cole’s sonnets are cages
where his beasts can pace and be observed. The poems work very well: the
constraints of form induce concision and exactitudes, and the poet
offers moral insights without being didactic. This is a strong debut.
Perhaps Cole will uncage his talent in the next volume, but these are
solid poems.