How yuh doin’ yourself, you big old human being, you?” How good it is to share the earth with such creatures and how unthinkable it would have been to have missed all this by not being born: a happy thought,that, for not being born is the only tragedy that we can imagine but need never fear.
Vocabulary
Bull Walrus: mature male walrus. tavern: pub or inn. longshoremen: people who load or unload ships at a dock. cosmic: relating to the universe.
Overview
The title of the poem, ‘In Praise of the Great Bull Walrus’ might lead us to believe this will be a nature poem, but it is more about people than animals. The walruses are described in human terms: Nowlan calls them ‘the walrus people’ and wonders what it would be like to be one of them.
The poem opens in a natural, conversational way. Nowlan says that, while he would not like to be ‘one of the walrus people’ for the rest of his life, he would like to spend ‘one sunny afternoon’ lying on the rocks and spending time with them.
Nowlan imagines that being with the walruses would be like spending time in a pub frequented by dock workers that doesn’t allow women inside. As you might
expect in such a place, Nowlan and the walruses would not talk about anything important or philosophical: ‘We’d exchange no/cosmic secrets’. Instead, he would simply ask how the walrus was doing and the nearest one would reply that it was great, and ask how Nowlan was. This friendly exchange would be all that was needed.
