300 Goats

“300 Goats” is an example of ecopoetry in that it calls into question how human beings perceive nonhuman animals. Nye’s speaker is concerned about the welfare of the goats on her friend’s ranch; she is worried they will suffer in the icy weather. Tenderness is at the heart of her feeling for the animals. However, the speaker cannot express her concerns from a point of observation, as the goats are “far from here near the town of Ozona” (Line 13). She can only imagine their condition based on her own experience of exposure to the cold. In this way, she anthropomorphizes the goats—she imposes her own human nature and human feelings onto the animals.

In the first half of the poem, the speaker is distracted by thoughts of the Chinese zodiac and whether it is “the year of the goat or the sheep” (Line 4). In the zodiac, the animals are symbols; they are abstractions. In a way, the real goats on the distant ranch are an abstraction, as well, for the speaker.

While a ranch is wilder, perhaps, than a farm, it is to a large degree a cultivated space. The speaker, however, is not a rancher. For the speaker, there are a lot of unknowns. If the tank water freezes, will the goats be able to drink? Will they be ruthlessly exposed to the frigid wind? The speaker offers a benediction, a wish that the goats will find shelter from the harsh weather. She feels responsible for their (dis)comfort. In the end, her friend the rancher is not particularly concerned about how the goats will manage in the cold. In the rancher’s experience, the goats are creatures of the earth, with inherent instincts, and can take care of themselves.

However, there are no hard philosophical landings in “300 Goats.” Instead, the ecopoem invites us to reconsider relationships between human beings and nonhuman animals. The poem asks, “follower or leader” (Line 6), and in so doing seems to question the hierarchy between humans and animals. What is the link, if there is one, between infantilizing animals as helpless creatures and using them for food, wool, and labor? What is the disconnect?

Ecopoetry puts pressure on the reader to take a closer look at how one thinks and acts in relation to nature and the environment. The two figures in this poem—the speaker and the rancher—come from two different points of view regarding the goats. The speaker, according to the rancher, underestimates the animals’ ability to protect themselves. The rancher, the speaker intimates, doesn’t care enough. In either case, the animals—a distant abstraction, in the moment—are neither tame nor wild. The poem ends humorously—the goats will be fine: “They’re goats” (Line 15)—but does a domesticated goat have the same survival skills as a wild mountain goat? There’s no telling, but it’s something to think about: To what extent does human interference with the natural world change its inhabitants irrevocably? Perhaps the goats are perfectly capable of weathering a bit of weather and will adapt to the increasingly harsh conditions of a planet in climate crisis. Perhaps not. The last line is humorous and optimistic. Within the lightness of the poem, however, the reader is asked to consider the concept and complications of stewardship.

Additional contemporary poets that write poems that address environmental concerns include Craig Santos Perez, Forrest Gander, Juliana Spahr, Camille T. Dungy, Muriel Rukeyser, and many more.