The main topic of this short poem is the connection between the extermination of

the buffaloes, and the extermination of those that saw the buffalo, namely Indi
ans. It also alludes to the Europeans that came to the Americas, charging acro
ss the country in the same fashion that the buffalo charges across the land, tra
mpling and killing the luscious green pasture. The poem includes many poetry in
struments such as metaphor, repetition, imagery, and alliteration.
The title itself, Buffalo Dusk , implies the gradual and expected death
of the buffalo, due to the cyclical nature of the universe. The setting of the
sun often inspired death to the early man, but also ren...
--Buffalo Dusk
is a short poem of epic regret and deep mourning. You can read it o
nce and get it straight away; you can read it a thousand times, as Robert Frost
said you should, and still have your breath taken away by the suddenness of its
closing, a bookend of its opening.
Most of the poem does indeed seem to
d to me that the effect of this was
ross the prairie. And I am unable to
prairie and pawing , great and

be made of repetition. A child once remarke

like the hooves of the buffaloes thundering ac
resist the assonantal chiming of dusk and dust ,
pageant , sod and pawed .

It is a great poem of witness. The key line seems to me And those who saw the buf
faloes are gone . The poem is a lament for the passing of a mythological and actu
al beast, at the same time as it is the telling of that passing. Reading it we b
ecome complicit in the process of how this came about, as we are challenged to k
eep the myth alive in future tellings.
It is about buffaloes, of course. But walk into an empty room in your house, or
a classroom, or a hospital ward, or a disused factory and say it into the silenc
e and it will change the complexion of your day completely. Suddenly anything yo
u have loved and do not want to lose seems to be here
--I think it is called Buffalo Dusk because dusk represents the end of the day, as
light is fading. I think the poem is a prophecy of the end of the buffalo popul
ation as well as a hymn to it. Plus Buffalo and dusk chime off each other with a
ssonance in the u sounds.
--I believe the poem is conveying a sense that everything passes, and what is her
e now will not be here 20, 50, 100 years from now and the the universe is in a c
onstant cycle of change...
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