A herd is both a social grouping of animals and a unit of agricultural management. Its movement across pasture, crowding at gates, and collective sounds give scale and animation to rural scenes. In poetry, the herd may represent community, instinct, abundance, obedience, or loss of individuality. A scattered herd can signal danger or disorder, while a peacefully grazing one suggests security. The word also supports comparisons between human crowds and animals, sometimes sympathetically and sometimes critically.

A herd is a group of large grazing animals, especially cattle, moving or managed together. The word may also function as a verb describing the act of gathering or directing animals. In poetry, a herd can symbolise community, abundance, instinct, conformity, or panic, depending on its behaviour. A scattered herd suggests disorder; a resting herd suggests security. Related terms include cattle, drover, grazing, pasture, stampede, livestock, flock, and herdsman.