Comparing Mountain Lion and Badger Essay -- English Literature

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 ... ...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.