The Bear

“The Bear” follows the hunter over seven days to track his prey as it dies. The hunter eats part of the bear’s thigh, then climbs into its carcass to save himself from the wind. Here he dreams of being a bear in spring. For the rest of his life, he wonders what the experience meant.

The poem is an allegory with multiple interpretations, the most obvious being about a man connecting with the natural world and how that connection sustains him physically and spiritually.

In the first stanza the hunter must get close to the snow to smell “the chilly, enduring odor of bear” (Line 8). Through this first sentence, with its carefully chosen words, the speaker defines the bear as “enduring” (Line 8) and the hunter as one who not only smells the bear but is familiar with the smell, which establishes the intimate connection the hunter has with wild animals.

In the next section the hunter whittles a wolf’s rib and freezes it in blubber as a trap. This is a traditional way of hunting for people who do not have guns and modern equipment. Though it is gruesome, it is also a sign of respect to kill the bear using the elements of nature instead of a machine.