The Thought-Fox by Ted Hughes

Question 1

Language Techniques

Answer 1

• Extended metaphor of a fox.
• Fox symbolises the creeping mystery of a creative thought, poetry itself; art.

-Imagery
-nature imagery produced through Hughes’ use of vivid and precise details of a natural fox.
-pun of the last line produces a dramatic double take,
“The page is printed.”
-fox is a metaphor for the pleasurable shock of the emergence of a poem.

Question 2

Form/Structure

Answer 2

• First person, dramatic monologue written in the present tense which has a quietly dramatic effect.
• Six short stanzas quietly half rhyming.
• Quartets with lines of either tetrameters or pentameters. The effect is again controlled.
• Poem has the stress-based rhythmical simplicity of a Modern poet.

Question 3

Mood

Answer 3

The mood of this poem is interesting, there is a sense of tension throughout the poem as the speaker waits for an exciting thought, and almost a sense of relief at the end of the poem as the poet gains the inspiration he had been searching for.

Question 4

Subject

Answer 4

The speaker is up late one night, struggling to find artistic inspiration, when suddenly a fox appears in the window in front of him, leaving little footprints in the snow, and suddenly he is flooded with ideas.

Question 5

Context

Answer 5

-Written 1957 in a dreary London flat at a time of little inspiration.

• Inspiration came from a dream Hughes had that came after a long night trying to complete a critical essay.
• A fox appeared in his room at Cambridge and placed a bloody paw on the blank page in front of him, leaving a blood print and spoke.
• The fox said the words, “Stop this. You are destroying us.”