The Thought-Fox Flashcards
The Thought-Fox
compound noun conflates the abstract with the concrete
midnight moment’s forest
rural landscape - metaphorical resonance - physical space and the space of the the imagination
echo of Blakes ‘the Tyger’ - ‘forests of the night’?
clock’s loneliness
transferred epithet - speaker’s loneliness
time
Through the window I see no star/ Something more near
‘star’ an ancient form of navigation and heavy with traditional poetic value - romance, light, hope, guidance… Instead of the star, our poet is fascinated by/inspired by something else’.
juxtaposition
deeper within darknes
dental/ plosive alliteration - depth, unknown
twig, leaf
asyndetic list of fox’s progress through landscape
And again now, and now, and now
each ‘now’ is a footprint
warily a lame
Shadow lags by stump and in hollow
Of a body that is bold to come
distorted by uneven surface - more suspense as shadow acts as harbinger of body - grand “body that is bold to come’
A widening deepening greenness
snow - grassier area
inspiration, motivation to write
Brilliantly
flaming orange - fiery in contrast with snow
Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox
arresting immediacy of ‘sharp hot stink’ => organic imagery, ugly sensory imagery
enters the dark hole of the head.
lack of inspiration in the darkness
starless still
‘the marriage of inner and outer worlds’ - neil roberts
- stationary still
- still starless
page is printed
harmony - fusion between fox’s (foot)prints and his ‘printing’ on the page
ars poetica = poem about writing poetry
What collection was this published in? And when?
Hughes’ first one, ‘the Hawk in the rain’ (1957)
Who typed up ‘the Hawk in the Rain’ and encouraged Hughes to submit it into the New York Poetry Centre First Publication Award, which it won?
Plath
What did Robin Skelton write about the Hawk in the Rain collection?
‘All looking for the emergence of a major poet must buy it’. - Robin Skelton
Helen Mort quote
Hughes’ presentation of animals often becomes ‘…a disconcerting encounter with the other’ - Helen Mort