21 pages • 42 minutes read
Alden NowlanThe Bull Moose
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1996A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“The World is Too Much with Us” by William Wordsworth (1807)
Written 150 years before “The Bull Moose,” this famous poem by the great Romantic poet William Wordsworth contains similar anxieties about the separation between human beings and nature. The difference lies in the treatments of the same theme. While Wordsworth laments the loss of the natural world, he does not necessarily position human beings as predators. In Nowlan’s poem, humans are very much the aggressors and the usurpers.
“Hummingbird” by Milton Acorn (1983)
Another Canadian “people’s poet” like Nowlan, Milton Acorn too departed from the conventions of high modernism to write poetry that was moving and accessible. The supposed simplicity of Acorn’s works belies its complex concerns. “The Hummingbird” is a nature poem that seemingly celebrates the wild in the form of the titular colorful bird. Like “The Bull Moose,” its vivid imagery and humor express deep, dark themes.
“It’s Good to Be Here” by Alden Nowlan (1977)
Published in Nowlan’s late collection Smoked Glass, this personal poem shows the evolution in the poet’s style since “The Bull Moose”. The poem delves into Nowlan’s personal history, is laced with his characteristic irony and bleak humor, and unlike “The Bull Moose” does not feature natural imagery. Its concerns are the human and personal worlds. What is common between the two poems is the strong emotional response both evoke, as well as their reference to Christian myth. The title “It’s Good to be Here,” is a version of what Peter said on seeing Christ resurrected. The poem itself tells the story of Nowlan’s conception.
Further Literary Resources
"Alden Nowlan: Interview" by John Metcalf (1975)
Interviewing Nowlan for Issue 63 of Canadian Literature, writer John Metcalf poses important questions about Nowlan’s literary influences and experiments with poetic form. Nowlan’s insights on his use of the visual image in particular are useful in analyzing “The Bull Moose.”
If I Could Turn and Meet Myself: The Life of Alden Nowlan by Patrick Toner (2000)
Toner's biography is the first full-length book centered on Alden Nowlan's tumultuous life. Toner's due diligence ensures that the story he tells separates the truth from rumors of Nowlan's life and offers new insights into this complex literary figure.
Remembering Alden Nowlan: An Interview by Corinne Shriver Wasilewski (2017)
Wasilewski was only 17 when she interviewed Nowlan for a high school project. Though she didn’t know at the time, Nowlan was already very sick and would die of emphysema only a month later. Here, she reproduced the interview for The Fiddlehead. Nowlan discusses the importance of widely reading and cultivating an individualistic point of view. Seen through Wasilewski’s perspective, the poet emerges as a warm, thoughtful mentor.
