The Perseverance of Archetypes

Although the poem does not specify a chronological location or year, there’s an implication of the passage of time. The methods for attaining transformation have changed as the world developed — and indeed humanities attitudes towards these transformations have shifted also — and yet the dichotomy remains the same. This endurance likely comes from the close relationship between humans and wolves in primordial times.

In the first stanza, the speaker describes an enactment of what is likely a hunting ritual; the magician creates a costume out of animal parts in order to absorb the strength, speed, and other positive attributes from that animal. From this prehistoric animistic relationship, the poem subtly cues the passage of time through grimoires (spellbooks which rose to popularity in the 18th century), a calendar, and finally the “classic movies” of the early 20th century. The fact that contemporary cinematographers...