The Thought-Fox by Ted Hughes Flashcards
Language Techniques
- 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.
Form/Structure
- 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.
Mood
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.
Subject
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.
Context
-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.”