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.
Themes
The Natural World Versus The Human World
“The Bull Moose” is a commentary on how alienated humans have become from nature. The relationship between nature and humans is often the subject of romantic poetry, with humans exhorted to return to the bosom of nature—the source of ultimate beauty and wisdom. However, by the time Nowlan wrote his poem, no such return is possible since the relationship between nature and human is completely broken. The speaker of his poem does not even try to bridge this gap, as the bull moose and humans may as well exist on parallel but utterly separate planes.
The first hurdle the human world has for the bull moose is spatial, in the form of the “pole-fenced pasture” (Line 4). The pasture stops the descent of the wild moose, and literally confines him within an enclosure. The words “pole” and “fenced” evoke harsh, geometric lines around the moose, who symbolizes the raw purity of nature. Both fences and poles are human items meant to contain and restrain. They also appropriate lands that are wild and common. The fences and poles represent how human beings colonize the natural habitat through architecture and encroachment.
Once in the human-built enclosure, the moose loses whatever little energy he retained. His previous lurching and stumbling is replaced by being “too tired to turn” (Line 6). The dramatic inversion shows that the animal is more intelligent than humans think: He senses that he will not survive his encounter with the human world. Here, Nowlan subtly presents the fact that the earth is in the midst of a slow mass extinction, with many species dwindling in the name of human "progress." The poem views the human world as rapacious, voyeuristic, and materialistic, as evident in the way the people materialize on the scene after learning of the moose's existence. Their only interest in the moose is spectacle and entertainment. They wish to consume him like a commodity, without meaningful engagement. They tease him, pry “his jaw open with bottles” (Line 21), or take pictures of the incident. Their association with the wild is so severed they can only understand the bull moose as an object like a shaggy stuffed toy. Even when thinking of the bull moose as an animal, their points of reference are a pet (collie), a beast of burden (cattle, ox), and a simulation of an animal (stuffed toy). Thus, they cannot understand or appreciate the wild, nor the wildness in their own nature.
The Bull Moose's Divinity
To understand the visual impact of the bull moose, one needs to consider both its size and the size of its antlered head. A full-grown male can measure well above six feet at the shoulder. The head is exceptionally large, with elaborate antlers spread like a palm leaf. The moose is the largest living member of the deer family. In the poem, the physicality of the bull moose becomes a symbol of its divine nature. The poem makes repeated references to the size of the moose: His head is described as “great” (Line 11), and when he finally looks up, he is imposing as a “scaffolded king” (Line 30), causing even the armed wardens to retreat in fear. His bellow is described as a roar. Of course, moose don’t roar, but here the sound-word is meant to signify the power of the moose’s call. It is as potent as the roar of a lion or a tiger and represents nature at its purest and most unpredictable. Thus, the moose represents the divinity in nature.
The theme of the moose as a divine, mysterious being is further enhanced with his association with high mountains, “purple mist of trees” (Line 1), and his descent into the human world. Like a god or a sacred creature, his origins are unknown and infused with mystery. He comes down to the human plane toward an uncertain fate. The tragic end of the moose demonstrates that the divinity of nature cannot be sustained in a world riddled by materialism and moral corruption.
The divine nature of the moose is also implied in the sacred (Christian) sense. As earlier discussed, the poem can be read as an allegory for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Like Jesus walking on the Via Dolorosa (the road of sorrow, now in modern-day Jerusalem, Israel), the moose makes a treacherous journey to his end. Hostile crowds surround him, jeering and baiting him. The young men forcing beer down his throat echoes Roman soldiers offering vinegar instead of water to Jesus. The “purple cap/ of thistles” (Lines 22-23) is like the crown of thorns jammed on the head of Christ; the color purple evokes his bleeding head. As Christian narratives detail the passion and agony of Christ’s crucifixion, the poem focuses on the systematic degradation of the god-like moose. The irony is that though the moose is far more powerful than the individual humans, he still dies as Jesus did, despite being the son of God. The inference to be drawn from both deaths is the same: Purity and divinity are sacrificed in the real world. Cattle thrive, while the magnificent beasts, natural beings, and gods all perish.
Individual Versus Society
While the narrator of the poem comments on the human world, the reader cannot lose sight of the fact that the narrator is, in fact, human. Though the tone is seemingly dispassionate, it is obvious they are critical of the humans in the poem, from “the oldest man in the parish” (Line 16) to the young men who savagely behave toward the moose. Unlike the townspeople, the narrator has sensitivity and empathy, as shown by their identification with the moose’s predicament. Therefore, the narrator represents a different kind of human, who is more attuned to nature and is at odds with the rest of society. The civilized world of mothers and children, girlfriends and boyfriends, automobiles, and beer cans, represents materialism and consumerism. The narrator rages against these values. In this reading, the bull moose represents the rebellious, free-spirited individual, like the narrator, pitted against conformist society.
It is likely that the moose’s fate enrages the narrator so much because they see themselves in the wild animal. Just as the moose is corralled by the fenced pasture, the free-spirited individual is confined by social norms. The individual tries to fit in to survive, as does the moose, assuming acceptable avatars like the cattle, the friendly collie, and the cuddly stuffed toy. But in the end, the moose’s true nature asserts itself. He “straightened and lifted his horns” (Line 30), the swift motion tied to the moose’s rush in the wild at the poem's opening. Unable to any longer pretend he is a cuddly beast, the moose chooses to die. The principled individual—the artist, the poet, the free-thinker—live and die by their beliefs. Rather than be “gelded” (Line 17) like the old bull moose and the ox, the moose and the nonconformist roar and topple over.
