The Sheep Child by James Dickey
"The Sheep Child" by James Dickey is a poignant poem that explores themes of birth, desire, and societal taboos concerning unnatural unions between humans and animals. The work unfolds in two parts, beginning with a reflection on legends surrounding deformities and the folklore of beings born from such unions. A notable story within the poem is about a "woolly baby" preserved in a museum, which serves as a symbol of hidden, uncomfortable truths and the enduring nature of these tales.
The narrative is delivered from the perspective of the sheep child, who articulates a profound and lyrical account of his existence. He reminisces about his mother's experience in the pasture, where an enigmatic force leads to his conception and subsequent birth. The sheep child embodies the intersection of human and animal, vividly describing his brief life marked by both beauty and suffering. His story underscores the complexities of desire and the societal response to taboo, suggesting that while others may continue to exist within the bounds of normalcy, the sheep child remains a haunting reminder of the consequences of transgression. The poem invites readers to reflect on the nature of love, identity, and the constraints imposed by cultural norms.
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The Sheep Child by James Dickey
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1967 (collected in Poems, 1957-1967, 1967)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
“The Sheep Child” is in two parts. In the first section, the poet revives the old legends of anomalous deformed births resulting from humans copulating with animals. Among these is the much-whispered-about story of the “woolly baby/ pickled in alcohol” somewhere in an obscure corner of an unnamed museum in Atlanta. Even though “The boys have taken/ Their own true wives in the city” and the sheep are now safe in the pasture, the story persists in the “terrible dust of museums.” Thus the poet imagines the sheep child saying, with his eyes, the story of his begetting, birth, and death. The sheep child’s narrative, printed in italics, is a beautiful lyric of desire.
Speaking from his “father’s house,” the sheep child recounts his sheep mother’s interlude in the west pasture, “where she stood like moonlight/ Listening for foxes.” It was then that “something like love/ From another world . . . seized her/ From behind,” and she responded to “that great need.” From this event ensued the sheep child:
I woke, dying,
From his birth in the pasture, the sheep child goes directly to his incarceration in the museum and his “closet of glass.” He becomes a reminder of the taboo surrounding unnatural sex, driving the farm boys “like wolves from the hound bitch and calf/ And from the chaste ewe in the wind.” The force celebrated in this poem is a terrible one and must be regulated. So, says the sheep child, “Dreaming of me,/ They groan they wait they suffer! Themselves, they marry, they raise their kind.”
Bibliography
Bruccoli, Matthew J., and Judith S. Baughman, eds. Crux: The Letters of James Dickey. New York: Knopf, 1999.
Calhoun, Richard J., ed. James Dickey: The Expansive Imagination. Deland, Fla.: Everett/Edwards, 1973.
Calhoun, Richard J., and Robert W. Hill. James Dickey. Boston: Twayne, 1983.
Dickey, James. Classes on Modern Poets and the Art of Poetry. Edited by Donald J. Greiner. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2004.
Dickey, James, Barbara Reiss, and James Reiss. Self-Interviews. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1970.
Heyen, William. “A Conversation with James Dickey.” Southern Review 9 (1973): 135-156.
Kirschten, Robert. James Dickey and the Gentle Ecstasy of Earth. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988.
Kirschten, Robert, ed. Critical Essays on James Dickey. New York: G. K. Hall, 1994.
Lieberman, Laurence. The Achievement of James Dickey: A Comprehensive Selection of His Poems with a Critical Introduction. Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman, 1968.
Van Ness, Gordon. Outbelieving Existence: The Measured Motion of James Dickey. Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 1992.