SOURCE: “The Setting in Vigny's ‘La Mort du loup,’” in Language Quarterly, Vol. 29, Nos. 1-2, Winter, 1991, pp. 104-14.

In the following essay, McGoldrick views the setting, rather than the action, of Vigny's “La Mort du loup” as the source of tension in the poem.

Vigny's poem “La Mort du Loup” recounts the tracking-down of a wolf, its mate, and two cubs, by a band of hunters with a pack of dogs. The wolf is pursued, easily cornered and caught off guard, and attacked by one of the dogs. It seizes the dog, and only releases it from the clutch of its jaws after the animal lies dead. Then, mortally wounded by knife and bullet wounds, it too lies down to die. In the poem's second and third sections, Vigny uses the wolf's death to spell out his message of stoic resignation and submission to fate exemplified by the...