Nature

The natural world dominates the poem. Most of the descriptive words used in the poem draw the reader's attention to qualities in the landscape. Words such as "frozen," "deep," "belly high," "swirling," "icy," and "howling" all call attention to the wintry scenes through which the wolves travel. The wolves are driven to leave their native habitat by the particular harshness of the winter of 1973, when their usual prey—turkeys, deer, even elk—become scarce. The poem asks the reader to think about the vicissitudes of nature and especially about the cruelty of nature. Can one consider any natural process cruel? What is more cruel—the weather that forces the wolves from their homes, or the wolf that kills the pregnant elk?

Time

In the Euro-American tradition, time is something that is measured, parceled out, and used to precisely pinpoint events and occurrences. In much Native American thought and...