Stephen Mitchell chose his words precisely, but a significant amount of them have a methodical connotation attached to them. In the first line, he uses the word "constantly" which almost directly transposes into the word methodical. The first stanza left me with a sense containment. The "thousand bars" practically hold me in too as they do this panther that could represent an actual panther or a prisoner on death row. Mitchell moves on to include even more words that exude an air of a roundabout life. This panther "paces," "circles," and "is like a ritual dance." Each one of these words or phrases refers to a constant movement. As everyone knows, pacing is a consistent walking motion that ends up being like a circle, which Mitchell references next. This circle embodies the never-ending track that this panther's life now travels "over and over." The author adds in the reference to a ritual dance as another successful attempt at forcing an image of continual movement into the reader's mind, and it leaves me with a picture of a wheel in my mind.
I can only envision this powerful water wheel like the one pictured below just churning along. Of course, the poem ends with what I suspect is the death of the prisoner that this panther represents, but that does not detract from the image of continuous movement. If anything, it adds to the movement because now the panther has moved on to a different state of being.
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