Comparing Mountain Lion and Badger

Comparing Mountain Lion and Badger

These are two poems that were written at the beginning and end of the

nineteenth century. The views on animal hunting and animal cruelty are

very different today. Animals such as badgers were hunted for sport;

it was considered to be entertaining to track a badger using dogs and

capture and torture it until death. Animas such as the Mexican

mountain lion were hunted in Mexico for a profit, their fur was a

highly sought after fashion item and was sold at very high prices.

Both the poems describe animals that are put through a chase before

they are killed. The badger is portrayed as aggressive and fierce yet

he is demure, the first two characteristics are masculine but the

badger also seems to be in controlled and is calm and collected. The

mountain lion is portrayed as a beautiful, elegant creature. The

curves of her body also accent the curves in the hills of the

environment that she lives in, these are all feminine features. In

Badger the poet works more on building up the character of the badger

whereas in Mountain Lion the poet focuses more on the image of the

mountain lion, he concentrates a lot on describing the lifeless face

of the now dead mountain lion, " Her round, bright face, bright as

frost." And, "Her round, fine-fashioned head, with two dead ears:"

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 ...

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...s 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.