Great poems about animals to appeal to 10 -12 year olds

[2018name]

I am looking for some good poems about animals to share in a childrens group. They can be funny, sad, nonsense etc etc but something that can spark interest and hopefully a discussion. Thanks.

www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/power-dog
web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/pig.html

The Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll?

Or The Eagle by Tennyson?

Old Possums Book of Practical Cats is a favourite here.

The Last Elephant by Nick Strong
Jaguar by Fransisco X Alarcon
The Beak of the Pelican by J Patrick Lewis
The termites by Douglas Florian (a shape poem in the shape of a termite mound)
Caged Birds by Maya Angelou

There are lots of good sea creature ones in this anthology - sorry can't find links to poems online www.goodreads.com/book/show/1259630.The_Mermaid_s_Purse.

John Clare? William Blake Tyger.

This site has some nice ones too.

www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/a-bird-came-down-the-walk/
www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/hyena/

And definitely old posum's practical cats for some light relief.

Not poetry but have you considered ‘Carnival of the Animals’ by Saint Sain. It’s a series of short music pieces, depicting animals. You can tell,from the music what animal is being ‘described’. As a kid, I loved guessing which animal.

Has to be poetry - but I loved "Carnival of the animals" as a child too.

This is a bit different, but do you know the book 'Love That Dog' by Sharon Creecher (IIRC).

It isn't a poem but contains a lot of poetry. Basically it is a story about a child who has a new English teacher and they're doing poetry. Lots of poems are explored and the children try themselves out at creating their own. Throughout the book, the child develops his own poem further and it kind of culminates in it being 'finished'. The child's poem is a beautiful, very touching and very sad poem about his beloved dog who died. It is all the more poignant because the reader follows the steps of how the child poured his emotions into it after initally being reticent.

DS and I laughed and cried at that book, and learned a lot about poetry too :)

The acrostic poems in The Lost Words might be a good source - and Jackie Morris’s illustration is just brilliant. You might also try them with Gerard Manley Hopkins - ‘Windhover’ and ‘As kingfishers catch fire’ are wonderfully descriptive.

Algy met a bear, the bear met Algy
The bear was bulgy, the bulge was Algy.