ANIMALS SUMMARY
I think I could turn and live with animals, they are
so placid and self-contain’d,
I stand and look at them long and long.
Explanation:
The poet says that he is desirous of living with animals as they are calm and self-contained. He appreciates the numerous qualities of animals. The self-contained nature of animals explains that they are happy in their own lives and do not interfere in others’ lives. They are satisfied with what they have and do not have the greed to earn more than others. Moreover, animals’ calm nature shows that they do not run after materialistic things like humans. They are at peace in all situations. The ups and downs in their life do not bother them. They know how to deal with such situations.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with
the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that
lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
So they show their relations to me and I accept them,
They bring me tokens of myself, they evince
them plainly in their possession
Explanation:
In the second stanza, the poet says that animals do not complain about their life. Whatever the conditions are, they never sweat and cry. Neither do they stay awake till late at night; nor do they cry for their wrongdoings. They are very truthful and do their duties toward God. They are not like humans who do things just to showcase their duties in the name of God. Animals are satisfied with themselves. They do not behave crazily and madly to own things. They are free from their desires and longings.
I wonder where they get those tokens,
Did I pass that way huge times ago and negligently drop them?
Explanation:
In the third stanza, the poet says that animals do not bend down on their knees in front of others. He has never seen any animals doing so to show their devotion to others. They have not done this for their ancestors who lived thousands of years ago. Further, the poet says that animals do not show respect to others the way humans do. They are not double faced, showing themselves good in front of others and having evil thoughts running in their minds. They never feel unhappy and live their life in joy on the earth. Here, the poet conveys that one animal eats another animal as food, but they never hide this. They exhibit their behavior in front of others as they are. There are no hidden or fake things among animals like humans. That’s why the poet accepts them the way they are. He further says that animals bring happiness in his life and make him feel the way he is. Animals do not hide anything and show their possessions.
In the end, the poet says that he wonders where animals got these good qualities from. He further asks himself, did he lose his good qualities or has he left them somewhere carelessly a long time back. He feels that humans lost their good qualities and passed them to the animals.