Horse Whisperer Flashcards
Subject of Horse Whisperer by Andrew Forster
The poem is narrated by a horse whisperer, who begins by describing his work with horses and the secrets of his trade, which sound like magic but seem completely natural.
When the people who once used his skills turn against him, believing that he uses witchcraft, the speaker decides to finally give up his trade, even though he had sworn to protect its secrets.
The speaker also chooses to use his powers against the owners of the horses, corrupting the animals, before fleeing the country.
The poem creates a strong sense of the relationship between man and horse and the tensions between superstition, religion and progress are explored.
Form and structure of Horse Whisperer by Andrew Forster
Horse Whisperer is a free verse composition, but Forster manipulates the form.
The stanzas shorten in length through the poem, reducing by a line in each stanza until the penultimate (second to last) verse.
Two lines are then dropped in the final stanza.
This could be argued to represent various things: the change in status of the horse whisperer, or the change to his happiness, or even a metaphor for the way in which rural trades and secrets are dwindling.
The content of the poem is structured around a story:
The first two stanzas describe the time when the horse whisperer was valued for his work with horses; the third (central stanza) provides a pivotal moment when people turn against him
The final two stanzas show his revenge, escape and longing for the horses he’s left behind.
Sound of Horse Whisperer by Andrew Forster
There is a sense of urgency created in the first lines of the first two stanzas with the repetition of “shouted”: the owners begin by needing the horse whisperer.
The final stanza uses a number of techniques to create a spell-like rhythm:
- The list of three breeds - “Shire, Clydesdale, Suffolk” - creates a strong beat.
- The assonance of “searing breath” and “steady tread” (the second one is almost a rhyme) builds momentum and climaxes in the repeated word “pride”, which ends both the last two lines.
- The momentum and the repetition emphasise the importance of this word.
But it is ambiguous - is it the horses’ pride that he misses, or his own pride as a horse whisperer?
Imagery of Horse Whisperer by Andrew Forster
The “secrets” of the horse whisperer’s talents in the first two verses sound very much like magic spells:
- In the second stanza the narrator explains that the frog’s wishbone provides “a new fear to fight the fear of fire”.
- When the narrator seeks revenge (in the fourth stanza) he tells us that he uses a “foul hex”, responding to accusations of witchcraft by deciding to use it.
The horses are given a strong physicality with their “restless/hooves”, “shimmering muscles”, “stately heads”, “searing breath” and “glistening veins”.
Some of these descriptions use a technique called synecdoche, where a part of something is used to represent the whole:
Here specific parts of the horse are used to stand for the whole horse, effectively focussing the reader’s attention.
The horses are elevated by contradictory terms: they are “tender giants”.
They are “stately” but they are also innocents: he uses the simile of “helpless children” to describe the animals.
Images are used to deliberately create confusion about when this poem is set: “the tractor came over the fields/like a warning” but the narrator was chased away with “Pitchforks”, and the horses were used to pull ploughs in the first stanza.
This suggests that this poem is also about the conflict between traditional and modern techniques of animal husbandry.
The idea of a crowd armed with pitchforks driving away the “demon and witch” is also iconic.
There is a suggestion that the horse whisperer is almost a horse himself as he joins the “stampede” to leave the country when the tide turns against him.
Attitudes, themes and ideas of Horse Whisperer by Andrew Forster
The poem reveals that the horse whisperer is misunderstood: the people whom he has helped turn against him because of superstition.
The reference to the tractor suggests that this change is also partly about the move from traditional to modern techniques: there is a sense of loss at the end of the poem, suggesting that change has not been entirely beneficial.
Initially the horse whisperer is benevolent (generous), but once he has been “scorned” he takes revenge.
The first person narrative - describing the close relationship between horse and man - encourages us to sympathise with the narrator.
Perhaps he is ‘whispering’ to us in the same way as he did the horses?
Example comparison to Horse Whisperer by Andrew Forster
Medusa:
- Both poems have a theme of revenge for a betrayal.
- There is a focus on physicality, particularly on the horses and Medusa’s physical form.
- Magic plays a role in both these poems. The question is how far do you believe in magic in either poem?
Checking Out Me History:
- Both poems are based on historical characters, although Horse Whisperer has just one, not many.
- There is a theme of power imbalance in both poems - the “dem” in Checking Out Me History who erase black people from history, and the people who drive away the horse whisperer. Both narrators offer an alternative to the official view of history.
- Although both narrators challenge powerful people, the tones are completely different: Checking Out Me History is triumphant, compared to the sadness of the narrator in Horse Whisperer.
How is the narrator’s voice created in Horse Whisperer?
The narrator responds to urgent shouts for help with calm and quiet, as he describes at length the secrets of his skills.
The detailed physical descriptions of the horses help create the sense of a wise, knowledgeable voice.
The way the narrator describes his cures creates a sense of magic, emphasised by the alliteration of “fear to fight the fear of fire”.
The shortening length of each verse suggests a quietening of the voice. Is the narrator ‘whispering’ to the reader?
There is a strong sense of longing at the end of the poem, created by a list of horse breeds.
Context of Horse Whisperer by Andrew Forster
Andrew Forster grew up in South Yorkshire but has lived in South West Scotland and Cumbria, where he now works for the Wordsworth Trust.
Horse Whisperer comes from his first collection, Fear of Thunder, published in 2007, and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize.
The term ‘horse whisperer’ was made famous in the 1990s by Nicholas Evan’s novel (later adapted for film), but originates in the 19th century when an Irishman, Daniel Sullivan, made a name for himself by treating and rehabilitating horses who had become vicious and unmanageable through abuse.
No one knew Sullivan’s secret, but he was often seen standing close to the horses, and it was suggested that he was whispering to them.
A society called ‘The Horseman’s Word’ was also established in Scotland to pass on the secrets of horse whispering, acting like a trade union or Masonic lodge, which has high levels of secrecy.
