At this point, though, we don't even know it's a poem. Indeed, at the beginning of the film-during a heavy-handed montage that shows Ottway killing wolves, lying in bed with his wife whom we eventually learn has died, writing a final letter to her about how miserable his life has become, flashing back to what we eventually learn is his childhood, and making preparations to commit suicide-the poem's words run through his head as part of a voice-over, presumably a section of what he's writing in his final letter. Jane and The Expend- ables one better, though, as the poem (pictured here) doesn't just end the movie but provides the frame mechanism for the entire narrative itself (it's even quoted on the movie poster).
