Ted Hughes' 'The Jaguar'

Ted Hughes' 'The Jaguar'

How effectively does Hughes convey the power of the jaguar?

Ted Hughes’ poem ‘The Jaguar’ describes the animals in a zoo and their lifestyles. It also compares them to the jaguar, which is an animal that lives differently to the others in the way that it views its life. The poem depicts the jaguar as powerful, but in what way? The first line of Ted Hughes’ poem the jaguar is:

“The apes yawn and adore their fleas in the sun.”

From the very first three words it is clear that the apes are tired, and the fact that they are in the sun adds to the sleepy air. I think this line was deliberately chosen to begin to convey the monotonous lull of everyday life in the zoo and set a drowsy mood.

They are “adoring” their fleas, which is not a word commonly used in these circumstances. Playing with fleas is normal behaviour for apes, but the use of the word adoring suggests that they are glad of the distraction in their lethargic state. From this line, the apes do not sound threatening, more bored.

The second line has a rather different tone; it tells of the parrots that screech as if on fire. Parrots do indeed screech, so this is literal, but it has connotations of pain or perhaps boredom. Obviously they are not literally on fire, so these words could have been chosen to help exhibit their brightly coloured plumage or to remain with the painful image and to display their banshee-like screaming. The end of the line includes enjambment and expresses how the parrots strut like “cheap tarts to attract the stroller with the nut.” “Cheap tarts” may also have connotations of the bright, tacky colours of parrots’ feathers, but the parrots also mean to attract attention with their screeches and strutting.

Line three goes on to speak of the tiger and lion, who are apparently “fatigued with indolence”. Again the tone is of sleepiness and possibly boredom, and the idleness of the animals in question. The animals are tired, and in the wild they would probably be more likely to be hunting rather than lazing about in the middle of the day.

This particular line is also an example of enjambment, as it runs into the next verse.

The last words of the first stanza are: “tiger and lion” and the first words of the second are: “lie still as the sun.” The end of the first stanza is therefore going on to a different subject, which intrigues th...

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...fe very differently because of the way he beholds it. The crowd at the zoo is not very interested in the zoo creatures until they encounter the jaguar, and is so stunned to see an animal living as it would in its natural habitat that they are enthralled by it. The jaguar is depicted as powerful in that the crowd is in awe of it, and this is very different to how they see the other animals because he acts as he would in his natural home. Therefore the jaguar has power over the watching people because he is grabbing their attention and in effect controlling them. The jaguar has also been depicted as powerful in comparison to the other animals, who have let the cage become their way of living. The jaguar instead is totally ignorant of the cage and instead still believes himself to be in his old environment, and since he is by himself he is automatically the ruler of his environment. He is powerful in the way he moves, which is with refinement and at some points rage, because he moves in a way that illustrates power. He believes himself to be powerful and therefore he is.

Overall, the poem successfully describes the jaguar as a powerful being in every respect addressed in the poem.