Maxine Kumin’s poem Woodchucks delivers the tale of an individual who is killing woodchucks. Although the speaker is unsuccessful with gassing the pests, they resort to utilizing a gun in order to eradicate the woodchucks. A superficial reader might assume that the poem is merely about exterminating woodchucks, but actually it is about the irreversible sadistic nature of human beings. Humans have cruel tendencies and once arisen, are permanent and irrevocable. After switching weapons to a gun, the narrator confesses, “I, a lapsed pacifist fallen from grace/ puffed with Darwinian pieties for killing” (lines 15-16). The juxtaposition provides a stark contrast between the initial and shifted temperament of the speaker. The narrator is