The poem opens with the speaker on a journey through the dense forest, where the atmosphere is described as eerie and otherworldly. He describes encountering footprints and hearing unsettling sounds, hinting at the presence of the loup-garou. The tension builds as he continues deeper into the forest, driven by a sense of curiosity and compulsion.
As the poem progresses, the speaker undergoes a gradual metamorphosis. He reports hearing the loup-garou's howl and feeling a strange sensation coursing through his veins. The transformation is complete as he finds himself transformed into the loup-garou himself, with fur, fangs, and claws.
In this transformed state, the speaker experiences a heightened sense of awareness and connection to the natural world. He navigates the forest with ease, embracing his newfound lupine nature. Walcott uses vivid imagery to convey the speaker's heightened senses, including acute hearing and an ability to perceive the forest in a way that seems almost supernatural.
Throughout the poem, Walcott plays with language, employing repetition and incantatory rhythms that create a sense of enchantment and ritual. The poem moves with a sense of urgency and energy, as the speaker revels in his transformed state and the freedom it brings.
Ultimately, "The Loup-Garou" explores the notion of duality and the boundaries between the human and the animal, the civilized and the wild. It delves into ideas of primitivism and the untamed aspects of human nature, suggesting that perhaps the loup-garou represents a primal, instinctual side that exists within all of us, waiting to be unleashed.