The Bull Moose

“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.