Once, In Our Wilderness, and Now

Here Ruth Molloy recounted what Philadelphia probably once looked like and the kind of wildlife that once existed before it became a densely populated city. Her poem was inspired by several lines from Watson’s Annals, a famous, multi-volume history of Philadelphia written in the mid-19th century. Ruth Molloy talked about how much of the wildlife was killed in order to serve as food for the settlers: "The beasts and birds which roamed our ‘woodsy wastes’ / Were shot and stewed to suit man’s varied tastes…" She speaks about an imagined time, long ago, when humans and the animals of Pennsylvania peacefully coexisted: "So urban was the scene, so tame the times / Bears came from Jersey to commit their crimes!" Yet, these times were long ago, and today all that is left as a reminder of the animals that used to live side by side in their natural habitat with humans are the "silly pigeon[s]," squirrels, cats, dogs, raccoons, and rats. The poem is a fantastical imagining of what might have been in the past, as far as the creatures that inhabited modern-day Philadelphia.

"Once, In Our Wilderness, and Now"

Our city’s contact with zoology
Has now, through Watson, been revealed to me…
Wood lice abounded and did cause distress
By crawling inside pantaloons and dress…
One poet wrote that rabbit, squirrel, and deer
"to beasts of prey are yet exposed here."

The beasts and birds which roamed our "woodsy wastes"
Were shot and stewed to suit man’s varied tastes…
Some wolves were tamed, and beavers helped men fish,
Wild geese and turkeys made a pleasing dish.

The city did improve; then it was rare
To see and mix with wildcat, elk, or bear.
So urban was the scene, so tame the times
Bears came from Jersey to commit their crimes!
Yet still at night the citizens did hark
To wolf’s sad howl and fox’s cranky bark.
All sorts of beasts and nasty smaller things,
With tooth and claw, with venom, bite, and sting,
Though seldom seen, remained to taunt the dreams
Of men with memories of old-time screams
And did remain and mingle with the breeze
And sounds of busy axe and falling trees.

And now today we commonly do see
A silly pigeon or a squirrel in tree,
And, roaming, fence to porch, the stealthy cat,
The dog, the sweet raccoon, the dirty rat!