The bull moose by alden nowlan and traveling

The poems “The Bull Moose by Alden Nowlan and “Traveling Through the Dark by simply William Stafford both characteristic tragic man encounters with animals. The pets in both stories come to represent human overlook for the natural world.

In Nowlan’s “The Bull Moose,  the reader witnesses the obscene treatment of a wild animal who has unknowingly stumbled into human terrain. “Too tired to show or, maybe, aware there was clearly no place still left to go,  (stanza 2, lines one particular and 2) the moose does not try to escape from the human beings, he allows them to come near him and to touch him.

They contact, they harass and they encourage the poor beast who does not respond with any hostility.

He, although most certainly since afraid virtually any wild animal would be, does not have strength to escape the masses that has collected to take a look at him. Reading Nowlan’s composition, a sense of familiarity emerges. Who also among us can deny having seen similar activities by humans at one time or another? One is motivated to problem why people would carry out such a thing and disregard the obvious battling of a wild animal.

Stafford’s “Traveling Through the Dark explains to the story of finding a dead deer in the highway while driving a car along one night. The car that hit the deer had kept on driving a car and had not cleared her carcass through the road rendering it dangerous pertaining to other drivers. The subject of the poem, upon dragging the deer from the street discovers that she was pregnant, “her side was warm; her fawn lay down there waiting, alive, nonetheless, never to become born (stanza 3, lines 3 and 4). That the deer was pregnant compounds the harshness in the death and brings you to a fresh emotional level.

Both poems use animals, the deer and the moose respectively, to represent grave disregard for mother nature. In both instances, harm has come to the animals at the hands of individuals. In “The Half truths Moose,  the animal assumes an almost saint-like martyrdom when he “let(s) a giggling woman plant a little purple cover of thistles on his head (stanza 5, lines a couple of, 3 and 4).

In accordance to Greg Cook in the essay “Alden Nowlan, anything rare and beautiful: a memoir,  Nowlan despaired of man’s inhumanity to the world about him and “developed alter-egos in his job ” including the imaginary close friend, or the characters of pets, like the bull moose ” to salve his injuries.  (para. 7)The personification from the moose as being a figure that simply stands and puts up with the anguish of others before dying amplifies a true disgust for man injustice to people most weak. No one inside the poem compares for this poor animal which includes come into their particular midst.

In contrast, the dead deer on the road in “Traveling Through the Dark delivers character just through the fact that she had been carrying an unborn animal inside of her. This fact only makes the composition more important and tragic. Someone is up against a man peering down by a dead special “large in the belly(stanza 2, series 3) and a sense of injustice. Thinking about leaving behind this deer and her uncreated, unbegotten, unconceived fawn appear so severe and chilly. The man in the composition steps to be able to deal with this example and challenges with having to dump the body of the doe.

He makes the choice even though it will be dangerous for other cars if the doe is based on the road. In this way, his regard to get the life of humankind is highlighted and one need to ask once contrasting the two poems how come it is that so often humans regard one another before pets. Inside the final stanza and last line of the poem, the person makes his move-“I thought hard for us all”my simply swerving”, after that pushed her over the edge in to the river. 

This work forces the reader, as part of “us all,  as part of the much larger society, to take on part of the responsibility for the violence that has been inflicted about this animal and for the brutalized death with the unborn fawn in her belly. In pressing the deer over the edge, the poet usually takes action to get the injustice and, in some way makes make amends.

In both poems, someone is confronted with death as well as the unkind serves of individuals. In examination of the writing in both performs, we come to figure out perhaps somewhat about equally poets and the view with the morality of humans. Both works are innately sad and tragic and evoke a feeling of guilt or at least culpability inside the reader. These poetry are a problem to do better, to be better and to most likely stand up in the face of injustice and make a difference.

Resources

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Donald M. Greiner, ed.Dictionary of Literary Resource, Volume a few: American Poets Since World War II, First Series. Bruccoli Clark Person Book. University of Sc. Gale Study, 1980.

Cook, Greg. “Alden Nowlan, something rare and fabulous: a memoir. Athabasca University or college. Canadian Authors. http://www.athabascau.ca/writers/nowlan/rare.html

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