Edwin Muir's Poem The Horses

626 Words2 Pages

Edwin Muir's Poem "The Horses"

"The Horses" is a poem by Edwin Muir. It tells the story of a world ravaged by nuclear war, where the few survivors live hopelessly in a desolate reality. Their outlook is changed by the arrival of the horses, a relic of the past which lets them rediscover humanity's bond with nature.

"The Horses", as well as being a very beautiful and moving poem, has an important message to convey. The poet uses various methods to illustrate this.

Throughout the poem, there are many biblical references. The nuclear war is described as a "seven days war", which is an allusion to Genesis, the creation and destruction of the world in seven days. This idea is furthered by the use of the phrases "our fathers' land" and "our fathers' time". The word 'covenant' has connotations of the 'Arc of Covenant', the Israelites sacred vow to God. And later in the poem, the horses are described as appearing from their own 'Eden', another biblical reference.

This illustrates the importance of the poem's subject matter, by introducing a parallel to the Bible. It bears a resemblance to when God flooded the world, to wipe out all sin and allow the few on Noah's Ark to rebuild a new, better world.

This poem also shows the totality of nuclear war. Although there are survivors, the ammount of death and destruction is immense. It takes so little time to destroy the world, in a way a punishment for mankind's vanity and arrogance. Technology, for so long thought to be a d...

Show More
Related

  • Analyzing Edward Hicks's Peaceable Kingdom Paintings

    1546 Words  | 4 Pages

    This bible verse represents peace and togetherness. It instructs that the wolf and lamb, leopard and goad, cow and bear, lion and ox, infant and cobra, and child and viper will all interact together. This is powerful

    Read More

  • Irony in All the Pretty Horses

    1846 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the novel All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, the author shows how important the roles of the horses are in the story and how they relate to John Grady, the protagonist of the novel. The horse has played an important role in the development of America. It has been a form of transportation, easy muscle, and companionship. In the Wild West, it was an essential resource for a cowboy to do his daily chores. McCarthy describes horses as spiritual and as resembling the human soul; meaning that horses came in many different forms. Horses are pretty, ugly, wild, tame, etc. in the story, they have so many different descriptions and different types of personality that they appear to resemble humans. In the story, John Grady is able to communicate with horses beyond a level normal people could. He could look into a horse's eyes and be able to see into its heart; because of this distinct relationship Grady is able to compare the world of horses to the world of humans. Throughout the novel, he learns that what he thinks of men and about his romantic idea of living in the world is completely false and wrong. Therefore, McCarthy's title shows that life can be full of change; and, at times, it can be cruel and ironic. Because of this, McCarthy's title shows how much a perspective can change when a man goes on an adventure and experiences things he did not experience before. Meaning that, McCarthy wanted readers to think before they read the book that life is pretty and easy, but after they read the book he wants the readers to know that life is not always how it seems.

    Read More

  • Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses

    1407 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses. In All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy reveals the limitations of a romantic ideology in the real world. Through his protagonist, John Grady Cole, the author offers three main examples of a man’s attempt to live a romantic life in the face of hostile reality: a failed relationship with an unattainable woman; a romantic and outdated relationship with nature; and an idealistic decision to live as an old-fashioned cowboy in an increasingly modern world. In his compassionate description of John Grady, McCarthy seems to endorse these romantic ideals.

    Read More

  • The Bull Calf

    584 Words  | 2 Pages

    "The thing could barely stand." ("The Bull Calf" line 1). The calf is referred to as a thing not an animal or creature. This is the way the author blocks emotion. The first line in the first stanza is a contradiction from the rest of the stanza because the rest of it has a positive attitude and the first sentence shows that the animal is weak. The third and the fourth line show the glory of the animal by hinting to royalty. The last line in the first stanza helps to back this information up by pointing to Richard the second. In the fifth line the narrator uses thee word us this connects him to the event. "The fierce sunlight tugging the maize from the ground" ("The Bull Calf" line 6). This is imagery, the sunlight showing promise and hope, maize is yellow this refers us back to the sun through the similar color. The last line refers to Richard the second this makes the poem flow better into the next stanza, Richard the second was lowered from his rank much like the calf is going to be.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In All The Pretty Horses By Cormac Mccarthy

    713 Words  | 2 Pages

    Horses are the most noticeable symbol in the whole book. Horses are a necessity to the boys. The horses are political and economic assets to Grady, Rawlins and Blevins. Specifically for John Grady, horses are more important to him than humans. He constantly dreams of him running with horses and always

    Read More

  • The Drought Year By Hugh Wright

    912 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the poem, the reader finds themselves trapped in the harsh and unrelenting landscape of drought stricken Australia, only to be witness to the sheer relentlessness and devastation of the drought that is readily consuming the land. It is a witnessing that quickly becomes a warning, one repeatedly reinforced and capitalised on by the loud and strange cries of a dingo. Throughout the poem, Wright clearly outlines the importance of life and the harsh yet fragile reality of nature, by including many depictions of dead or dying animals and plants. Towards the end of the poem the narrator finds themselves propping a dead horse outside the gate of the ‘thirty mile dry’ in hope of warning people not to come this way, or they too, will face a horrible demise at the hands of the relentless

    Read More

  • The Symbolism of the Horse in ‘horse’

    693 Words  | 2 Pages

    In ‘horse,’ the speaker describes a horse being betrayed and then killed in a small town in Texas. The first two stanzas described the horse thundering towards outstretched hands being attracted to a field of corn but instead it is attacked by a group of white teenage boys who leave it mutilated. The sheriff of the town does not do anything because he believes that it is in their nature to do so. In the last stanzas the Mexican owner puts the horse out of his misery and someone tries to pay him for the damage. His people are disappointed because they believe that money could not make up for the death of the horse but, they do nothing about it. It would seem the horse in the poem is meant to represent the Mexican culture and how it is being eradicated by the dominant white society in the United States.

    Read More

  • The Garden Of Eden Analysis

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    Did The Green Knight poem make allusions to Biblical tales? . Allusions is a vague description of a person, place or thing without being too specific. Allegory is a hidden meaning within a story that one has to discover on his or her own. Green Knight makes allusions towards the bibical tales of The Garden of Eden. The allegoring retelling of The Garden of Eden is apparent in the Green Knight in one big way, temptaion. The symbolic references from both stories are similiar in many aspects.

    Read More

  • Poetry Closed Reading Assignment:Billy Collins

    882 Words  | 2 Pages

    Overall, it expresses the love and affection of Collin about this poem. This poem is basically looked at, or listened to, and the rodent tested. Such imagery used in poem supports the central ideas of Collin in poem, that the reading poetry must be, just like a good exploration, a discovery act. The poem has a very conversational effect and scholastic feel in it. First stanza directly linked to the second stanza while the third and fourth stanza of this poem has distinct thoughts in them. Similarly, the six stanzas come in a follow-up way but the mood actually changed in the last two stanzas of the poem. In short, Collin has written this poem in a very special and artistic way which really changes other’s minds about how to better understand a poem by knowing its actual meaning.

    Read More

  • The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost

    959 Words  | 2 Pages

    On the surface the poem seems to be a meditation on past events and actions, a contemplative reflection about what has gone on before. Research into the poem informs us that the poem is written with a sense of irony

    Read More

  • Modernism And Symbolism Of Horse And Native American Poem

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    These stories have both symbolism of horse and contemporary American culture integrated into the Native American ways. This is expressed through the modernism in some of these poems. For example, 3 A.M is a poem about two Indians waiting at the Albuquerque airport for a flight. Also shown is the stigma the flight attendant has for these to Indian people and why they are at the airport looking for a flight. Also mentioned is how they remember a friend I assume named Simon took a yellow cab out of Albuquerque, which cost him twenty-five dollars. The way American culture shines through this poem is interesting because the stigma we have for the Native people is that they do not fly on airplanes and they do not take cabs. Also they do not use forms of currency like dollar bills. However this stigma is wrong and you see this through this poem and for me I see it through the eyes of the flight attendant.

    Read More

  • Robert Frost: Annotated Bibliography

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this poem, Frost includes his fear of the ocean and exaggerates its destructive power. As Judith Saunders stated that “The first thirteen lines have depicted an ocean storm of unusual force, and through personification the poet attributes to this storm a malign purposefulness” (1). Frost provided human characteristics on the storm to help prove his point that the ocean has bad intentions and its only purpose is to hurt him. Frost does not describe the waves as a result of unfavorable weather; he explains them as having a malignant intention to destroy the world. This poem revolves around the forces of nature and could be included in the long list of nature themed poems by Robert Frost.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Yeat's The Second Coming

    735 Words  | 2 Pages

    As the poem can be interpreted in numerous ways, and therefore, its message has a flexibility that enables its readers to mould it’s meaning to befit them. Thus, allowing its messages to be applicable to anyone, regardless of demographic. For example, the poem can also be interpreted by Christians as man’s decaying interest of Christian ideologies and the supposed products of this decay. A view held by plenty of older Christians and a important view for Christian youth to acquire in order to cement their beliefs. Though the message conveyed by Yeats that can be applicable to all contemporary youth, is that depravity and tension arouses conflict. And when we look forward, we feel our anxiety stir at the inevitable - at the international conflict embedded in humanities future. Why will this conflict occur? Because if relations between ‘super-powers’ are withered now, how would it cope though overpopulation, the depletion of resources and other problems ever nation has to overcome? How can we be sure that these super-powers won’t value land, and resources such as oil over their populations in order to maintain their economic and political power? We don’t. This is why a third world war is indeed probable, and why this poem’s core message is still relevant to all

    Read More

  • Alfred Lord Tennyson's, 'Break, Break'

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    The speaker mentions “the stately ships go on/ To their haven under the hill” (9-10). These two lines reference the stately Ark that Jonah built to survive the forty days and forty nights of flooding on Earth to rid the world of its evils. The “haven” the ships were protected by is parallel to the protection God gave Noah and the other passenger during the terrible experience. The poet does not only refer to the destruction of the flood, but also stresses the optimistic future. He writes, “But O for the touch of a vanished hand,/the sound of a voice that is still” (12) as an allusion to the lasting effect of Jesus’ words after he ascended into Heaven. During Jesus’ short time on Earth, he spread many messages of the word of God far and wide. However, the true lasting effect of the Messiah is how he has affected the world from beyond his lifetime and after his ascension into Heaven. Since Jesus’ death, Christianity has become one of the worlds’ leading religions and affected millions of people. Jesus’ voice may be still, but the resonance of his powerful words is spread every

    Read More

  • "Tithonus" by Tennyson and "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes: Compare, Contrast and Analysis

    998 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...za there is personification in the line, “the vapors weep their burthen to the ground”. There is also a sense of irony with, “man comes and tills the field and lies beneath” because its humans working the land for crops that help them survive, only to be buried beneath it when they pass away. In the second stanza, the God granting his wish is described by the smilie, “Then didst thou grant mine asking with a smile, like wealthy men who care not how they give”.

    Read More

More about Edwin Muir's Poem The Horses

Open Document