"In poetry, as in life, animals bring out the best in us," in the opinion of Paul Muldoon, the anthologist who put together this wonderful poetic bestiary. He has cast his net wide. The collection is as comprehensive as Noah's Ark. A fragment of Henri Rousseau's painting "Tropical Storm with Tiger - Surprise" adorns the book's cover; and, as one might have expected, Blake's mystical homage to that splendid creature can be found inside. There are also masterpieces at the farther extreme of zoolatry and beyond. With fine sensibility, it is possible to perceive beauty in a jelly-fish, as Marianne Moore demonstrates ("Visible, invisible ...,/a fluctuating charm/an amber-tinctured amethyst ..."). A flea can serve as an amorous examplar, when witnessed by Donne ("It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,/And in this flea, our two bloods mingled be"). It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to think of any great poet who has never written about some sub-human species. Paul Muldoon has made the most of a great commission.