The púca (sometimes anglicised as pooka) is one of the most vivid figures in Irish folk supernatural tradition — a shape-shifter who delights in misleading and terrifying mortals, particularly travellers at night, but who also carries creative and prophetic associations. In some traditions, the púca's horse-form could carry a chosen human to otherworld knowledge. Poets drawn to the trickster archetype found in the púca a native equivalent, and the figure's shape-shifting quality made it a natural metaphor for poetic transformation and the instability of identity. W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory collected púca stories that fed into the literary imagination of the Revival period.

Púca is a shape-shifting supernatural being, often appearing as a horse or goat, associated with mischief and prophecy. In poetry, the púca represents the unpredictable and chaotic aspects of nature. It can be helpful or harmful, testing human wit and courage. The púca is particularly active at Samhain, marking the transition to winter. Poets use the púca to explore themes of transformation, deception, and the uncanny. It is a folkloric figure that adds humor and danger to narrative verse.