This dissertation is a hybrid project that includes a critical paper and a collection of creative writing. Both sections of the dissertation deal with nature poetry. The critical portion of the dissertation focuses on two major examples of animal poetry, William Blake and Galway Kinnell, and draws parallels between their work and other examples of animal poetry. The creative portion of the dissertation is a full-length collection of poetry entitled The Woodsman’s Son. This collection addresses themes of nature as they manifest in childhood. The natural environment, the woods, the water, and the animals that inhabit them all have a powerful effect on the various speakers’ development, both during their formative years, and into their adulthood. Against this backdrop, the collection explores the weight of family. Each section explores family in the contexts of history, experience, and recollection. The history of family can be burdensome, and the speakers are often bound by expectation and tradition. Exploring the heritage of the speaker, the boy around whom these poems revolve, we see the pressures inherited from birth and how they shape his life. His experiences as a child, too, shape his psyche. When combined, all of these factors form a picture of a life that is not entirely within the boy’s control.