Mountain Lion

Mountain Lion is a poem that depicts the death of an inhabitant of the Lobo valley, a lion that is trapped mercilessly by two hunters, who are confronted by the poet as they leave the valley. The poet describes the lion's face using contrasting but very emotive descriptions such as ‘beautiful dead eyes', and ‘fine round-fashioned head, with two dead ears' putting emphasis on the word dead by repeating it twice in the same stanza. In the first stanza, the poet describes the natural beauty of the Lobo Canyon, when he says, ‘Dark grow the spruce trees, blue is the balsam…' The poet goes on to describe other locations in the canyon, such as the gloomy path into the Lobo and the blood-orange lion's lair.

Lawrence tells the reader about the void that has been caused by the absence of the animal that used to live there. This is done when the following line is given, ‘So, she will never leap up that way again, with the yellow flash of a mountain lion's shoot.' He says that the lion's bright striped frost-face would never watch any more from the shadows of its lair. He seems to be saying that without the lion there is a sudden emptiness that has enveloped the Lobo. Lawrence then continues on to describe the natural beauty of the canyon, not as him but as the lion would see it from the safety of its lair. This is done by his usage of striking visual imagery such as, ‘brilliant, gloomy and blood-orange'. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the Mountains of Picoris are mentioned which give us a feeling that the poet regards nature with great respect.

Throughout the poem there is great irregularity and little balance in the sentences of the poem. There are sentences that continue for more than 15 syllables such as the first line of the poem, but equally so there are shorter 1 syllable sentences present too. A reason for this could possibly be his agitation caused by the hunters' disrespectful actions towards nature or the poet's aggravation at the loss of a creature. As