“The Bull Moose” was a poem written in the 1970s by Alden Nowlan. It talks about a situation where two people, who are very close and haven’t seen each other for a while, meet again. A “bull moose” is an animal that lives in Canada. They aren’t called this anywhere else in the world. The poem consists of seven lines. Each line has eight syllables and the poem is written in anapestic tetrameter. Anapests are two unaccented syllables followed by one accented syllable, such as “Boom-sha boom. ” This poem doesn’t rhyme. Alden Nowlan was a famous Canadian poet who lived from 1932 to 1987.
He had many different jobs over the course of his life but eventually worked as a writer and professor at University of New Brunswick, where he taught for 18 years. Many people believe that this poem captures what it feels like to be nervous and excited about meeting someone again after a long time apart. The poem begins with some tension between the two characters. Then, after the poem’s climax, the tension is resolved and a peacefulness comes over the poem. The poem ends with a sense of happiness about what these two characters have to look forward to in their future together.
The poem “The Bull Moose” consists of seven lines written in anapestic tetrameter. Each line has eight syllables except for one line that has nine syllables instead. The poem also doesn’t rhyme. In this poem, there are two characters who haven’t seen each other for a while now and they strongly miss each other as if they were living apart from each other for years rather than days or weeks. They decide that it would be best to up and spend some time getting reacquainted with each other.
The poem begins with some tension and the two characters staring awkwardly at one another: So you’re back. ” That’s all I said. You shrug those big broad shoulders of yours, Press your lips together, look away; you grin. The poem goes on to describe how the two characters reach an uncomfortable detente before deciding that it would be best if they talk about why they haven’t been talking to each other as much as they usually do: We can’t go home without this thing between us cleared up. So we walk past the moose-yard out into the open moose-pasture and we see moose standing there in the moonlight, all around us.
And then the poem reaches its climax. This is when an argument between them breaks out and they get into a fight with each other until finally making up afterwards: We both talk at once. Then neither of us talks; we just stand there trembling like aspens in a high wind; then suddenly we’re embracing each other, kissing each other frantically, as if we’d been apart for years instead of days or weeks; you tear my blouse open and I tear your shirt open and our hands are all over each other as if we were trying to make up for all those long lonely nights we spent alone.
The poem gets very intense for a moment but then it reaches its resolution. The poem ends with some sense of contentment in what the two characters will be able to do in the future now that they are together again: Till our bones ache, till our hands blister, till we can’t even see each other for all the sweat in our eyes; and when finally we let go of each other, groaning like old men, leaning on each other for support, tottering like drunkards; there’s nothing left for us to do except laugh—quietly at first; then louder and louder until we’re bellowing like bulls in the moonlight.
And how happy we shall be. Title: The Bull Moose The poem is called “The Bull Moose” because the poem’s climax scene involves two characters who have been apart from each other for a while now. They are embracing and kissing each other just as a male moose does with its female moose during mating season.
The poem begins with a description of Nature: peaceful, beautiful, and accepted by the poem’s speaker. Nature is painted as an accepting mother; “She takes what we give her and gives again / Our Mother Nature never fails” (Nowlan). The poem even chides man for ineffectively using his power: “The poem’s speaker admits that man has been ‘trying to improve on her handiwork / By using the wrong tools. ” The poem then continues with a series of images that reveal how far man has strayed from Nature, as well as how his separation from Nature affects him.
The poem’s speaker begins by describing a man who “drives a big car” and “wants to be better than someone else. ” The poem then describes the Big City, but admits that it has also been influenced by Nature: “streets paved with gold / And sidewalks of silver. ” However, even though Nature is present in the Big City, its effects on man are destructive: it “makes him crazy. ” The poem then explains that the process of becoming separate from Nature affects people more directly as well: “It makes him forget what he came here for / In all this clutter and clatter.
This image brings about a contrast between an earlier image of a houseboat and an earlier image of a city. Although the poem’s speaker admits that he enjoys living on a houseboat, he also makes it clear why people want to live in cities: because they are “trying hard to be somebody. ” However , the poem mentions that it is possible to avoid this separation from Nature by “learning how to be. ” The poem then goes on to describe what life would be like if man did not exist at all: there would only be Nature, untouched by any man-made creations.
However, even though man does not exist in this imagined world, the poem’s speaker points out that without him, nothing would change for Nature: “It was this way long before he came / And it will stay this way long after he has gone. ” Thus, although man may have strayed far enough from Nature to create an entirely separate world of his own desires and wants, Nature itself stays completely unchanged. The poem then shows the poem’s speaker standing with Nature, as he walks through it with a sense of fear.
The poem then begins to reveal how man can return to his place in Nature by accepting his own mortality. The poem even claims that without death, life would have no meaning or joy: “We are all here for such a short time / Why be afraid of living the time we have? ” Man should learn to enjoy living in the moment rather than becoming obsessed over an idea about how life should be: “Heaven and Hell and Eternity will wait / Heaven and Hell and Eternity always wait. ”
