"The Meadow Mouse" and "The Fawn" are two stories that have various similarities and differences. "The Meadow Mouse", written by Theodore Roethke, and "The Fawn", written by Edna St. Vincent Millay, both appear in our Adventures in Reading books. These two poems both deal with human encounter with wild animals. The animals are also personified in each poem. In each, the animal ends up running from the human beings. The narrators also want to be the animal's friend, in one case, or the animal's mother in the other poem. Both poems have no real rhyme or rhythm schemes, but use very descriptive and precise wording to make vivid images in the reader's mind.
             Both the fawn and the mouse are personified. The writers use such words as he and his to personify the animals. Another example of personification from "The Fawn" is the line, "Surely his mother had never said, 'Lie here till I return." Deer cannot talk, only humans can. Also, both poems mention that the narrator wants the animal's love or acceptance. It could be argued that only a human being with free will could choose to love or accept anything and therefore, this is another example of personification.
             Each poem portrays the animal as helpless and innocent. The quote about the mouse's escape from the shoe box, "To run under the hawk's wing, under the eye of the great owl watching from the elm tree to live by courtesy of the shrike, the snake, the tomcat." from "The Meadow Mouse" gives the reader an image of a world full of predators and natural enemies of the mouse where it could be killed at any time. In "The Fawn", the narrator says that the fawn is "so spotty and plain to see" suggesting that it is vulnerable to attack.
             In "The Fawn", the narrator says; "Might I have had the acceptance,
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