"The Jaguar" is about a trip that Hughes made to the zoo. In the poem, he describes the animals in a zoo and their behaviour. It compares the apes, parrots, tiger, lion and a boa constrictor to the jaguar, which is an animal that lives differently to the others in the way that it views its life. The poem begins by describing the apes 'yawning' and 'adoring their fleas', and the fact that they are in the sun adds to the sleepy air. I think this line was deliberately chosen to convey the monotonous lull of everyday life in the zoo and set a drowsy mood. The second line has a rather different tone; it tells of the parrots that 'shriek as if on fire'. Parrots do shrieks, so this is literal, but it gives a connotation of pain or perhaps boredom. Also, they strut themselves like cheap tarts so that visitors of the zoo will feed them, which indicates that they are losing their dignity to food. Line three speaks of the tiger and lion, which are apparently "fatigued with indolence". Once again, suggesting the tone of sleepiness and possibly boredom, and the idleness of the animals. 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.
The second stanza repeats again the same monotonous lull of the animals, this time a boa constrictor. The word "sun" is used again, so the warm, drowsy image returns, so are the animals. The following lines describe the boa-constrictor which has a coil in its tail, which supposedly "is a fossil". The end of the second line of stanza two is: "cage after cage seems empty" which signifies the monotonous appearance of the cages, which hold very little activity as all the animals in there are barely moving. Basically, the animals are dull and not a very piquant sight for visitors. The next line uses the alliteration "stinks of sleepers" which doesn't really means that the sleepers literally stink, just that there is a strong 'scent' of sleepiness in the air, as if there is no activity to interest the visitors. Some of the sleeping animals themselves are hidden under straw, so the author uses another metaphor and suggests that the straw is breathing. These animals, which in the wild could be threatening and very dangerous, are not acting on their usual instincts and instead are choosing to lie about in a kind of stupor that makes them appear harmless and approachable and generally unnatural.
The purpose of the poem was to express my interests of nature and how I felt and what I experienced when I was in the woods at that time. There’s also that life and death aspect in this poem, in which the bird has the lizard in his mouth and also by the word “fire”.
As a way to end his last stanza, the speaker creates an image that surpasses his experiences. When the flock rises, the speaker identifies it as a lady’s gray silk scarf, which the woman has at first chosen, then rejected. As the woman carelessly tosses the scarf toward the chair the casual billow fades from view, like the birds. The last image connects nature with a last object in the poet's
The diction surrounding this alteration enhances the change in attitude from self-loath to outer-disgust, such as in lines 8 through 13, which read, “The sky/ was dramatic with great straggling V’s/ of geese streaming south, mare’s tails above them./ Their trumpeting made us look up and around./ The course sloped into salt marshes,/ and this seemed to cause the abundance of birds.” No longer does he use nature as symbolism of himself; instead he spills blame upon it and deters it from himself. The diction in the lines detailing the new birds he witnesses places nature once more outside of his correlation, as lines 14 through 18 read, “As if out of the Bible/ or science fiction,/ a cloud appeared, a cloud of dots/ like iron filings, which a magnet/ underneath the paper
Specifically, I am intrigued by the use of a Lion as a metaphor in this poem. The Lion is constantly growing and being “feed” from an abundance of different things, all with varying levels of severity. The idea that the lion is constantly growing seemed almost like the author was waiting for something, like perhaps the lion to roar. Once this roar happens and the lion is feed to the point where he cannot remain silent anymore, “he comes.”
"Fog Envelops the Animals." The Whole Motion: Collected Poems 1945-1992. Hanover: Wesleyan UP, 1992. 80-21.
The ability of words to calm a child’s fears is shown in “A Barred Owl.” Additionally, the author conveys the idea that even though one may say everything is alright, what one makes up in one’s mind is often worse than reality. The rhyme scheme in “A Barred Owl” helps depict the simple and soothing tone of the poem. Not only the rhyme scheme but also the repetition of certain consonants and sounds such as, “the warping night air having brought the boom / of an owl’s voice into her darkened room” help emphasize Wilbur’s i...
"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.
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
“Skimming slightly, wheeling still, the swallows fly low over the field in clouded days,” The birds (swallows, to be exact) are mentioned twice, at the beginning and end of the poem. They seem to be the introduction and closing. They are solemn and peaceful, yet are also reminders of the battle. Or are they peaceful? The clouds could represent the clouded confusion of the battle and aftermath, and the sad and melancholy tones of the area
The symbolism in the poem paints a ghastly picture of a man’s life, falling apart as he does his best, and worst, to keep it safe from himself. In lines 1 through 8 (stanza one), he gives a brief description of an incident in his life where things have gone wrong. “When the tiger approaches can the fast-fleeting hind/Repose trust in his footsteps of air?/No! Abandoned he sinks in a trance of despair,” He uses these lines to show the lack of control he has over his actions, how his will to change his circumstances has weakened. He is both the hind with the person he is tormenting, and the tiger that
Both these poems are great poems and emphasize on different parts of an animal’s life. The two poems are “The Blessing” and “Predators.” The four topics that will be compared and contrasted are the animals, the speaker’s feelings, the title, and the conclusions.
Each poem describes a scene where a man learns from his experience and interaction with nature. In “The Meadow Mouse” the man instantly finds himself a father-figure to the mouse that he finds. When the mouse leaves, he thinks of the dangers of nature such as, “the turtle gasping in the dusty rubble of the highway.” From his instant love and pain of losing the mouse, he learns how he truly feels about nature. Set in a different scene, the fisherman in “The Fish,...
As the journey to the destination begun the atmosphere is horrid as they passed cheap motels half deserted streets and sawdust motels it all set a very bleak tone of lifelessness, to support this claim, “like a patient etherized upon a table.” (Eliot 368) although they also encountered a yellow fog most likely caused by industrialism it took a form of animal imagery finding comfort in its surroundings to support this claim, “The yellow fog that rubs t back upon the window-panes, the yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes, Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening.” (Eliot
The consistent pattern of metrical stresses in this stanza, along with the orderly rhyme scheme, and standard verse structure, reflect the mood of serenity, of humankind in harmony with Nature. It is a fine, hot day, `clear as fire', when the speaker comes to drink at the creek. Birdsong punctuates the still air, like the tinkling of broken glass. However, the term `frail' also suggests vulnerability in the presence of danger, and there are other intimations in this stanza of the drama that is about to unfold. Slithery sibilants, as in the words `glass', `grass' and `moss', hint at the existence of a Serpent in the Garden of Eden. As in a Greek tragedy, the intensity of expression in the poem invokes a proleptic tenseness, as yet unexplained.
The first stanza directly addresses the Tyger, which is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, “a large, carnivorous feline quadruped.” It sets up the theme of night, along with which comes darkness and evil. The third and fourth lines ask the first of many repetitive and, in a sense, unanswerable questions: what kind of creator has the ability to make something with such “fearful symmetry” (4)? The second stanza moves on to ask the same question in a different format, inquiring where the Tyger came from: heaven or hell. Starting in line 9, the speaker uses powerful imagery to ask again what God could create the Tyger. The diction portrays the Tyger as evil, with a “twist[ed]” heart (10). Lines 13-16 make up the fourth stanza and compare the creator to a blacksmith. Lines 19 and 20 ask two questions that are different from the rest: “Did he smile his work to see?/Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” These lines ask of the Tyger if his maker was happy to see what a monstrous being he had created, and if it was the same maker that made the pure and innocent Lamb. In a sense, t...