Nowlan begins the poem by creating a vivid image for the reader with his descriptive language. Through describing the bull moose’s natural habitat, it is clear that it is very different from the one which he is moving towards. The author talks of the “purple mist of trees on the mountain” and the many different varieties of trees in the forest such as spruce, cedar and tamarack. It is when the bull moose encounters the pole fenced pasture that these descriptions stop, the fence seems to symboliz

Many times in the poem Nowlan slips in subtle literary devices to suggest the bull moose is imperial, almost like the King of the Forest to the readers. In many ways, he relates to Jesus, the King of the Jews. Before Jesus was put on the cross to die, a crown of thorns were placed on his head, in the condition of the bull moose, it was a crown of purple thistles. Jesus was criticized and insulted before his death at sundown, as was the bull moose. Perhaps the most significant similarity between Jesus and the bull moose is that the people killed Jesus so they could be free, so the author could be suggesting that the people killed the bull moose, a creature of nature, as a sign that it could be nature that saves humanity after all. Nowland even uses the word god, “like the ritual mask of a blood god” to describe the facial expression of the bull moose, which make the cows back away. It is surely no mere c

Some topics in this essay:
Alden Nowlan, Jews Jesus, bull moose, King Forest, literary devices, poem bull moose, bull moose experiences, poem bull, alden nowlan, humanity nature, moose experiences, bull moose’s, figurative language, people killed, ultimate suffering,