A comparative commentary between the nature and animal use in Ted Hughes' poems The Thought-Fox and The Horses. Used for IB level English A1 HL, Individual Oral Commentary
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Comparison Between Ted Hughes' "The Thought-Fox" and "The Horses"
1. The Significance of Nature and
Animals in Ted Hughes’ Poems
A comparison of “The Horses” and
“The Thought-Fox”
Daisy Atkin, IB1, English A1 HL
2. Introduction
• Ted Hughes was always fascinated by animals
• He uses an animal as a symbol in almost all of
his poems
• He perceives animals as magical creatures, that
they represent ‘The True World’
• The nature Hughes’ uses is largely derived from
his childhood upbringing in the Lake District
• The nature often symbolises an emotion/feeling
or an intangible image in Hughes’ poems
3. Content – The Thought-Fox
• Fox representative of Hughes himself
• The nature – snow, forest – symbolising
the poem and the thoughts going into the
poem that Hughes is writing
• Hughes possibly a hunter, hunting for the
words to write in his poem
• Hughes writing a poem and gathering
thought, poem is eventually printed – the
clock ticks, The page is printed.
4. Content – The Horses
• Reminisces about childhood
• Walks through early morning frost, feeling of emptiness
and loneliness
• Silence of the morning reflecting Hughes’ isolation
• Horses
→ ‘statues’ before sunrise
→ transformation with sunrise
→ take on a new element after sunrise – seem alive/human
• In final line he asks to still be able to remember his
memories years later
5. Comparisons Between Content
• Ironically, Hughes anthropomorphises the animals (horses/fox) to
the extent that they symbolise and become Hughes and
aquaintances, when he prefers the animal world/mind to that of a
human – committing human savagery
• The nature symbolises (in both cases) his isolation from the world
and the cold in which his mind composes poetry
• There is a sense of journeying in both poems – there is the writing of
the poem in The Thought-Fox, and in The Horses, Hughes goes on
this spiritual-like journey, recollecting memories from his childhood
using flashbacks
• In one there is a sense of chronological time (The Thought-Fox) but
in The Horses, there is a sense of chronology up until the final lines
when we realise that Hughes is reminiscing
• Religion plays an important role – the final lines of The Horses are
akin to those of a prayer, and Hughes seems to be praying to be
able to recollect the childhood memories – “May I still meet my
memories in so lonely a place”
• In The Thought-Fox, there is the hint of a spiritual element – “…of a
body bold to come
6. Nature in The Though-Fox
• The fox, an animal, represents Hughes
• Fox → sly, intelligent, clever, quick (thinking)
• The snow and woods → nature representing the
poem and Hughes’ writings
“Cold, delicately as the dark snow,
A fox's nose touches twig, leaf;
Two eyes serve a movement, that now
And again now, and now, and now
Sets neat prints into the snow”
• Fox’s nose = pen/ink/poet
• Twig, leaf = paper
• Sets neat…snow = Hughes’ writings
7. Nature in The Horses
• Horses → seen as noble creatures with great strength (in
mythology)
• The frost and description of the light → cold thoughts, isolation and
silence
• “The curlew’s tear turned its edge on the silence” → the lamenting
call of the curlew reinforces the silence
• The sunrise → a transitional stage between night and day
• Shows the fast-paced process from half-light (half-humanness) to
when the light floods the valley (thawing and leap into life)
• The horses ‘come alive’ from their statue-like state, a
metamorphosis
• Horses are calm and peaceful, in contrast to the anxiety and fear
the poet experiences
• The sun changes the whole perception and light of the world giving
us this sense of freedom (horses – freedom [symbol])
8. Why use Animals as a Symbol?
• Attributes (of animal) may refer to poet’s own
personality/attributes
• Innocent, defenseless, in need of human care to survive
– a sense of hope and also hopelessness
• Despair and other emotions captured by our perception
of the animal(s)
• A mythical, fantastical way of perceiving life – making
things seem less (or more) worse than they are
• By using animals, Hughes commits “human savagery” –
that is to say that by using a particular animal for a
particular person, he can demean and portray them as
he truly sees them
9. Why use Nature as a Symbol?
• Pure, innocence that humans derive from nature
• Peace and tranquility, but also death and
destruction
• Life and death, birth and fruitfulness
• Humans again, have the power over nature, as
they do over animals – shows our ability to
distort it
• Something created by God – could be seen as
supernatural
10. How do the symbols of animals and
nature influence the structure of The
Thought-Fox?
• The sly nature of the fox contributes to the
flowing way the poem is written
• The use of enjambment gives way to this flowing
sense of rhythm in the poem
• “Of a body that is bold to come//Across
clearings”
• The feeling of the fox being hunted gives way to
the lines “…serve a movement, that now, and
now, and now…” – which is very much like the
quick, darting movements a hunted animal
makes
11. How do the symbols of animals and
nature influence the structure of The
Horses?
• The religious allusions created by the nature-symbol in
The Horses gives way to a prayer-like structure of the
poem
• The rhythm of the poem is choppy, and has some abrupt
lines, like the sharp crunch of frost described
• The two-line stanzas are like breaths taken when
walking up a hill – short and shallow
• The rhythmic sound of horses hooves are also very
similar to the way the poem is written – ‘clip-clop, clip-
clop’ etc, has this steady beat and when it stops is akin
to a horse stopping to take in his surroundings, and
taking one step at a time so he can see what is around
him (the one-line stanzas)
12. What ‘nature’ language is used, and
what effect does that have in The
Thought-Fox?
• The words associated with nature that are
used in the Thought-Fox give way to the
poem’s sly, hunted feel
• Snow – twig – leaf – hollow – forest
• They contribute to the symbolism – each
nature-linked word represents a different
symbol
13. What ‘nature’ language is used, and
what effect does that have in The
Horses?
• The poem concentrates on using nature-
linked vocabulary
• There is a vast contrast between the dead
nature and the alive nature Hughes sees
before and after the rising of the sun
• The different nature is used for different
symbols, enhanced by the descriptive
language used surrounding the symbols
14. Conclusion
• Both poems, although vastly different,
show similar themes and similar ideas
• Hughes’ use of animals and nature heavily
influences a reader’s perception of a
poem, and gives way to Hughes’ way of
thinking
• The language, symbols, structure and
content of the poems are all interlinked
and all influence each other
I will be discussing the two poems by Ted Hughes – “The Horses” and “The Thought-Fox”. The two poems are interesting as they both reflect upon Hughes himself and his acquaintances, as well as his love for nature and his interest in animals. I will be looking at the significance of nature and animals in the two poems, and how they influence the poems.
Ted Hughes, who we studied earlier this year, is the poet that I have chosen to take the poems from. He interested me when I read the “Thought-Fox”, because I found the poem intriguing due to the use of an animal and nature. I read through some more of his literary works, and came across the poem “The Horses”. This poem stood out not only because I myself find horses interesting, but because I noticed similarities between that poem and “The Thought-Fox”. I researched Ted Hughes himself a bit more, and when looking at various biographies, found that he had been drawn into the world of animals and nature at a young age, and that they had always fascinated him. I liked his ideas of the mythical sense of animals, and the way he portrayed them.
Hughes’ poems reflect a lot about his childhood and upbringing, and he uses his childhood scenery a lot in his poems.
I’m going to briefly outline the content of the two poems – especially the Thought Fox, as we did that earlier this year. The two content interpretations are mine, and might not agree with how you perceive them, however I ask you to bear with me.
The Thought-Fox’s main idea is that of a poet, sitting down to write a poem. The fox portrays Hughes himself, and the forest, the snow etc. shows the pen, paper and ideas that enter a poet’s head as he writes. I see a fox as a creature often hunted on horseback – another reason I chose the two poems, as to me they are quite conflicting – and this idea of the hunt could be seen as a poet hunting for ideas and images to include in his poems.
The final lines of the poem reflect the notion of a poem being written – the clock ticks, the page is printed – shows the finished work, and wraps up the poem.
I will explain the content of the Horses in a little more detail, as it is an unseen poem to you. The poem takes us on a journey both literal and emotional, and starts with a feeling of isolation as Hughes walks the hills in the morning. The passes a group of horses, who in the half-light seem to be ‘tortuous statues’. He walks steadily until he reaches the crest of the hill, and it is at this point that the sun rips through the sky, rising up in a fiery red. It is hinted at this moment that Hughes has some sort of connection with God.
The poem then turns, and Hughes walks back, with the sun still rising, and he passes the horses again, who, woken by the rising sun, have taken on an almost humanesque and magical quality. In the final lines – that almost mimic a prayer – he asks to be able to remember his memories in the years to come.
We see Hughes reminiscing about his childhood, and about how he has these memories, and wishes to hold on to them. The poem has two sides – before and after the sunrise, and these play a role in the dead, darkness before and the alive, light after.
Human savagery – talk about later.
shows that the lamenting call of the curlew makes the silence seem even more silent
