Beast poetry is a group of poems written in Latin during the 8th to 11th centuries. These poems are based on an old tradition of stories where animals act like humans, similar to those by Aesop. They helped create the popular Reynard literature that developed in the 12th century. Ideas from beast poetry have been used in later works, including the Canterbury Tales and modern animated movies.

While it is helpful to study beast poetry as a group of writings, they do not form a single type of literature but rather a collection of poems.