The imagery in Badger brings the poem to life; the poet uses alliteration, “And drives the rebels to their very door.” This puts emphasis on the fact that the badger is fighting back and will do everything in his power to survive. The word, “drive” is repeated many times throughout this poem and is a metaphor that best describes the way that the badger pushes the crowd on, it shows that he is in control of the situation. In Mountain Lion the similes also bring the poem to life, “like a Christmas toy.” This really conjures up the image in the reader’s head of a bleak empty landscape. Repetition is also used, “she will never…” this brings home the fact that the mountain lion is dead and all the things that were affected by her will notice the loss and be greatly affected by it. At the beginning the repetition of, “gun” shows that the poet’s party become un-nerved and intimidated.
They are wary, as animals would be in the same situation. The alliteration of ‘f’ in ‘face’, ‘frost’, ‘fashioned’, all add to the perfection of this creature and how amazed the poet is. As the ‘f’ sound is quite soft.
In Badger the poet sets the scene very differently to that in Mountain Lion. Badger has a very busy and fast moving situation the beating rhythm of the poem reflects this, it also shows the pounding beat of the badgers heart as it is running for its life. There is tension as the dogs and men enter on the scene.
During the poem the badger varies its reaction as though it is working to a plan, like it is trying to fool the men, “runs along and bites”, and, “The badger grins.” The strong rhyming couplets of Badger also give an exited, noisy and chaotic atmosphere. There are ten syllables to each line and fourteen lines in each of the two stanzas. There is also a lack of commas and pauses all the way through until the end when the badger finally dies, “and crackles, groans, and dies.” The use of commas shows the slow death of the animal as all its energy is drained away until the moment that it dies.
In Mountain Lion the environment is very peaceful and sweet smelling, “ blue is the balsam,” In the poem the landscape is described to being, “like a Christmas toy.” This simile emphasises the emptiness and how artificial the vast expanse looks after the lion’s death. This poem unlike Badger flows and sways, this is linked with the flowing curves of the lion’s body and the curves of the rolling hills. The syllables vary from line to line and the number of lines in each stanza also varies. The difference in line length depicts the feelings of the poet, the short sharp lines such as, “Men! Two men!” adds impact, surprise and caution. The long flowing lines add a sense of beauty and a relaxed atmosphere, “Dark grow the spruce-trees, blue is the balsam, water sounds still unfrozen, and the trail is evident.” The sweet smells and sounds of water appeal to the senses of the reader and bring them into the poem. Mountain Lion also shows an irregular beat and pauses all the way through that build up a tense atmosphere.
The narrative style of the two poets is very different. In Badger the poet writs in the third person, he is an observer of this situation and just describes what he sees to be happening. This poem is effective in the way that it makes the reader feel for the badger and want the badger to keep on fighting even though it is inevitable that it will die in the end. In Mountain Lion the poet writs in the first person. This makes it possible for him to add his feelings and emotions into his work. The poet’s structure of long and short lines also makes you feel the loss that the poet and the landscape also feel, as the environment feels empty and lifeless.
There are two possible perspectives in which to see the attitudes of the hunters to their pray in both Badger and Mountain Lion. If someone was reading Badger around the time that it was written, the things that the men did to the badger would not have been seen as unacceptable because it was a normal thing to do as entertainment. The same would apply to the reader of Mountain Lion. But today is would seem appalling to think of anything like this ever happening.
I think that although both poems are different they are both very effective. Both Badger and Mountain Lion contain a message. Badger gives the impression that something has to be done to stop the hunting of badgers which when the poem was written was not illegal as it is today. Mountain Lion persuades the reader into thinking that the death of this animal was unneeded and will now leave a gap, and empty void in the environment that it once lived. The poet also makes the shocking declaration that he thinks, “how easily we might spare a million or two of humans And never miss them. Yet what a gap in the world, the missing white frost-face of that slim yellow mountain lion!” this gives the horrendous impression that the poet feels that a mountain lion is much more valuable to the world than several million humans. The poet wants the reader to feel regret for the death of the animal and also wants the reader to feel that they need to personally do something to prevent this from happening again.
