Question

Animal imagery in Ted Hughes'poetry...​

Answer 1

Animal Imagery in Ted Hughes' Poetry

Ted Hughes is one of the great English poets of modern

times. He is an animal poet using animals to express his insight

into the enduring spirituality of nature. Through animal imagery,

he exalts the instinctive power of nature that he finds lacking in

human society. For he sees in them a clear manifestation of a life-

force that is distinctly non-human or non-rational in its source of

power.1

One of the most important themes of Hughes poetry is the

use of animal character for number of reasons. To demonstrate the

savage epic struggle between good and evil that occurs in nature

everyday, to portray nature and its occurrences, and to use the

wildlife as metaphor for human existence.

Hughes' "The Jaguar" is about a trip to the zoo made by

Hughes himself. In it Hughes attempts to convey his own views

about human behavior by relating it to animals. With the use of

varied lexical choice, he depicted the scene greatly:

The apes yawn and adore their flees 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

Lie still as the sun.2

In these lines Hughes began talking about the harmlessness

and inactivity of these animals he is visiting in the zoo and

expressing his disapproval of these things in an implied way by

using phrases like "The apes yawn, and adore their fleas in the

sun" The suggestion made by Hughes is that these apes had

become so bored that their grooming of each other was almost a

religion. It is only a way of giving those apes something to do.