Animals and Nature

Gie me ae spark o’ Nature’s fire,

Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes,

What was he doing, the great god Pan,

Earth’s crammed with heaven,

Oh, the shark has pretty teeth, dear,

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

Little Lamb who made thee?

The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.

A robin red breast in a cage

And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light.

The question is not, Can they reason? nor,

I shoot the Hippopotamus With bullets made of platinum, Because if I use leaden ones His hide is sure to flatten ‘em.

Drinking when we are not thirsty and making love all year round, madam; that is all there is to distinguish us from other animals.

Nature is a temple, where, from living pillars, confused words are sometimes allowed to escape; here man passes, through forests of symbols, which watch him with looks of recognition.

Nature cannot be ordered about, except by obeying her.

The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.

Everything is fitting for me, my universe, which fits thy purpose. Nothing in its good time is too early or too late for me; everything is fruit for me which thy seasons, Nature, bear; from thee, in thee, to thee, are all things.

Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer’s horse

Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

The glacier knocks in the cupboard,

Lent it the music of its trees at dawn?

Say, has some wet bird-haunted English lawn

Now the wild white horses play,

Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly.