Symbolism in Ted Hughes' Poetry | 'The Thought Fox' and 'The Jaguar'

 

Ted Hughes (1930 - 1998) was a modern poet whose poetry is equally attractive for juvenile readership and serious readers. In each of his poems, he talks about a different animal and often conveys deeper meanings through the use of symbols and imagery. Children love to linger on the superficial text whereas the advanced learners get amusement from the profundity of thought imperceptibly conveyed through different poetic devices.

His famous poem ‘The Thought Fox’ is a vivid exemplar of meta poetry – a poetry about writing of poetry itself. It is evident from the title that the fox is a metaphor of thought (Fox = thought) whereas whole of the poem is a manifesto of the creative process that goes on in the poet’s mind when he does poetry. This is how beautifully and symbolically the poem opens;

 

“I imagine this midnight moment's forest:
Something else is alive
Beside the clock's loneliness.”

 

The slate of poet’s mind is fully blank. His mind is in a state of peace and tranquility. In the meantime, he receives vague signals of a newly approaching thought which he expresses in his peculiar way like this;

 

“Something more near
Though deeper within darkness
Is entering the loneliness:” 

Suddenly, the poet sees the image of a fox with its sharp nose and shining eyes which symbolically signifies a well-formed and well-organized thought. The poet becomes conscious of this infancy. Very slowly, this fox moves on the snow through the trees of forest and its (Fox’s);

 

“Shadow lags by stump and in hollow
Of a body that is bold to come.”

 

The fox keeps moving with regular footsteps and reaches green fields through snow across the clearing. It seems to have some fixed motive behind its slow but steady gait. The fox gets nearer and becomes evident. The poet smells the hot stinking smell of the fox’s body;

 

“The window is starless still; the clock ticks,
The page is printed.”

 

Henceforth, the poet’s imagination generates a verse out of that thought. The same process continues during the hours of serenity and the poet’s mind produces a full poem. However, the poet remains unconscious of these processes.

 

Ted Hughes’ mostly read poem ‘The Jaguar’ is also rich in the use of symbols. In this poem, the poet introduces different animals kept captivated behind the bars in the zoo. All of them – apes, parrots, snakes, tigers and lions react likewise to their captivity. Hence, the poet finds them busy in their respective instinctive activities.

 

“The apes yawn and adore their fleas in the sun.

The parrots shriek as if they were on fire, or strut

Like cheap tarts to attract the stroller with the nut.

Fatigued with indolence, tiger and lion.”

 

The apes, parrots and snakes are doing their regular activities. They don’t think of their cages. However, the lions and tigers seem tired of lethargy as opposed to their vibrancy and animation in their natural habitat. The poet promulgates in the most pathetic manner that each cage of the zoo seems empty of its animal because each of the animals has nothing to do but eat and sleep. He further adds that their boredom and motionlessness has made the entire zoo appear like an animal painting decorated on a wall to amuse the little learners of a nursery class.

 

“But who runs like the rest past these arrives

At a cage dream where the crowd stands, stares, mesmerized,

As a child at a, at a jaguar hurrying enraged.”

 

Whoever visits the cage of Jaguar finds it going round and round in his incarceration. It neither gets bored nor did it accept his state of slavery. Rather, it behaves like a freedom fighter.

 

“He spins from the bars, but there’s no cage to him.”

 

Thus, the writer has made the jaguar a symbol of freedom fighter who never submits his will but always prefers to rebel against the brutal act of subjugation to death. The poet has experienced fire in its eyes and bang of blood in its brain. Its each stride speaks of its vision and intentions;

 

“The world rolls under the long thrust of his heel.

Over the cage floor the horizons come.”

 

To cut the matter short, we may say unhesitatingly that Ted Hughes is a poet of animals who shows his deep love for nature and its inhabitants. His poetry is equally attractive for children and adults who get amusement by the symbolic representation of the poems. He is a true lover of nature.