The final stanza of the poem, Four Mountain Wolves, combines the two types of wolf, the real and the metaphorical. The "mountain white mist wolf' is purely physical, pictured with "frozen crystals on silver hair" and "icy whiskers," while the "gray fog wolf" has been "traveling the years." Finally, the "lean wolf running" combines the two, it is physical in that it eyes a pregnant elk, but it also runs "where miles become faded in time." The poem's four wolves, two physical, two metaphorical, become one.
Four Mountain Wolves