Bestiary

Guillaume Apollinaire who coined the term "Surrealism" and influenced absurdist writer Alfred Jarry makes merry here of Orpheus's inclination towards wooing animals and other living creatures - although Sirens are included amongst the bestiary, which Orpheus makes analogous to his own 'curse' of continuous song. The poems are mostly four or five lined poems about various animals and insects such as the Fly, Elephant, Ox, Crayfish, Owl, Ibis et cetera, and through-out several observational lyricisms by Orpheus admiring the lousy life around him. Rather than read too much into each poem I settled back and enjoyed the nuances of Apollinaire's text, and took to them all in the spirit of Guillaume's poem on the Peacock who in dragging plumage on the grass, showing its beauty, is also baring its arse.