Panther, by Reiner Maria Rilke and Travelling
The relationship between human kind and the animal kingdom has always fascinated artists. Two writers, Reiner Maria Rilke and William Stafford, address in some of their poems the complicated relationship between the modern man and its fellow wild creatures.
The Panther, Rilke's poem, places the narrator action less, in front of a panther's cage, and describes what he sees behind those bars. The author includes the ancient forms of worship of the animal kingdom into the picture, by giving the panther a mythical side.
Traveling through the Dark, Stafford's poem, takes the complicated interference between the modern human and the wild world a step further, placing the human witness in the state to perform an action that will affect both worlds.