"Wolfe" is a narrative poem, a retelling of the *Beowulf* story in a ranch setting in the Texas Panhandle. It is seriously intended and not a parody. The monsters--equivalents of Grendel and his dam--come up from their lair at the base of Palo Duro Canyon to kill cattle and eventually a man. Though they are vicious and cruel, they draw a certain sympathy, even from the rancher, because they represent the wilderness's resistance to the westward spread of civilization. A young hero, Billy Wolfe, comes down from Kansas to kill the monsters. The poem is not in Anglo-Saxon-style meter but in iambic rhymed couplets.

Log in to favorite or list