Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Bear Paw" by Richard Hugo is a powerful meditation on historical memory, the passage of time, and the persistent winds of change that erase and rewrite the past. Through vivid imagery and a somber tone, Hugo captures the bleak aftermath of the Battle of Bear Paw, where Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe surrendered to the U.S. Army in 1877. The poem explores themes of defeat, the relentless force of nature, and the inevitable erosion of history by time.

The poem begins with an intense description of the wind, "95" and "still pouring from the east / like armies," immediately setting the stage for a battle of endurance against a natural force that seems both cruel and infantile in its persistence. The wind becomes a metaphor for the overwhelming pressure to "give in," echoing the eventual surrender of Chief Joseph and his people. The repeated "give in, give in" reflects the relentless assault on both physical and emotional resilience, as "Looking Glass," one of Joseph's key allies, lies dying on the hill.

The wind also creates a landscape of despair, where "pale grass shudders" and "cattails beg and bow." These personifications emphasize the powerlessness of the environment and its inhabitants in the face of such relentless forces. The image of a car with "Indiana plates speeding to Chinook" serves as a jarring juxtaposition, blending the past with the present and highlighting the ongoing movement of people and history, even as the land remains haunted by its past.

The poem shifts focus to the autumn season, described as "bewildering," with howling winds that carry "garbled information" and the "howl of coyotes," blurring the lines between past and present, reality and memory. The "lull in wind" brings a momentary silence, broken only by the "V after V of Canada geese," a natural cycle that contrasts with the human tragedy that unfolded in this place. The "eternal nothing of space" underscores the sense of emptiness and the insignificance of human struggles in the vastness of the landscape.

Hugo then reflects on the act of remembering and learning from history. The plaques that mark the site of the battle, with the "unique names / of Indians and the bland ones of the whites," are meant to preserve memory, but the wind "takes all you learn away to reservation graves." This line suggests the futility of trying to hold onto history, as the relentless wind—symbolic of time and forgetfulness—erases the lessons learned and the lives lost.

The poem's emotional core is found in the lines that describe the act of close combat, where one might "take blood / on your hands" and then "turn your weeping face / into the senile wind." The phrase "senile wind" is particularly striking, suggesting that the wind, like an old man, has forgotten the significance of the events it has witnessed. The death of Looking Glass, who "is dead and will not die," further emphasizes the idea that the past lingers even as it fades from memory.

The hawk "starved for carrion" and the arrival of "one more historian" on the horizon add to the sense of an endless cycle of death and documentation, where history is consumed and regurgitated without ever being fully understood or resolved. The final lines of the poem express a desperate plea: "Pray hard to weather, that lone surviving god, / that in some sudden wisdom we surrender." This prayer to the "weather," a force beyond human control, acknowledges the ultimate powerlessness of humanity in the face of natural and historical forces.

In "Bear Paw," Hugo masterfully blends historical reflection with the natural landscape to explore the themes of memory, loss, and the inexorable passage of time. The wind, as a central symbol, embodies the relentless forces that shape and erase history, leaving only fleeting traces of the past for future generations to ponder and perhaps surrender to in the face of inevitable change.

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