Write a critical note on the use of animal imagery for symbolic purposes in the

poetry of Ted Hughes. (P.U. 2004)

The Four-fold Appeal of Hughess Animal Imagery

Hughess animal poems are among the best in his work, and among the finest in the
whole range of English poetry. The imagery in these poems has its own appeal. This
imagery shows Hughess enormous powers of observation and an exceptional
capacity to embody his observations in words.

The imagery in these poems is at once graphic and realistic; and the language
which Hughes has employed in describing the various animals shows a striking
originality and felicity. The emphasis in this imagery is on the vitality or energy of
the animals concerned and also on the violence, the fierceness, and the cruelty of
most of those animals. This animal imagery, with its emphasis on the destructive
powers of certain animals, has largely contributed to Hughess reputation or
notoriety as a poet specializing in the poetry of violence. At the same time, it has to
be noted that, while the primary purpose of this animal imagery is to convey to us
Hughess visual impressions of the animals whom he has actually observed, there is
a symbolic purpose behind this imagery also.

The Imagery in the Poem Called The Jaguar

In almost every poem, Hughes has pictured most vividly the various physical
features of the particular animal he is dealing with. In the poem The Jaguar, for
instance, the animal concerned is depicted as brimming with energy, thus offering a
contrast to some of the other animals in the zoo. The jaguar has eyes which are
sharp and penetrating, and which are almost blind because of the fire of rage in
them. The jaguar is deaf of ear because of the bang of blood in the brain. He
whirls about in his cage which is no cage to him. His stride is indicative of his feeling
that he is absolutely free even though the bars of the cage do not allow him to
move out of his prison. He feels so free and strong that the world seems to roll like a
ball under the thrust of his heel. Here, then, is an example of Hughess visual
imagination, and his capacity to record his impressions in the kind of language
which no other poet has ever used in this context: by the bang of blood in the
brain; the drills of his eyes, his stride is wildernesses of freedomthese are
striking words and phrases. Then, in the same poem, other animals too have fire, or
they strut like cheap prostitutes to attract the visitors; the tiger and the lion lie still;
and the boa=constrictors coil looks like a fossil.

The Imagery in the Two Poems About the Hawk

There are two poems by Hughes about the hawk: The Hawk in the Rain and Hawk
Roosting. In the first poem, the hawk is depicted as perched effortlessly at a height
with his still eye, and with his wings holding all creation in a weightless quiet. This
hawk is steady as a hallucination in the streaming air. In the final stanza of this
poem the hawks ultimate fate is described in striking language: the ponderous
shires crash on him. In the other poem, it is the fierceness and cruelty of the hawk
which are emphasized. The hawk can kill where he pleases because the whole world
is his domain. To tear off heads is a routine performance by him. He is an arbiter of
life and death. The allotment of death is his privilege. The one path of his flight
lies directly through the bones of the living. Rarely has any poet described the killer-
hawk in this kind of metaphorical style.

A Description of the Violence and Destructiveness of Thrushes

The poem Thrushes is also characterized by the same kind of vivid and realistic
imagery. Here the violence and ferocity of the birds has most vividly been conveyed
to us through the use of forceful vocabulary and striking combinations of words. The
thrushes are terrifying; they are more coiled steel than living creatures; they have a
dark deadly eye. They operate suddenly, with a bounce and a stab, dragging out
some writhing insect which is to serve as their morsel of food. There is nothing
sluggish about their movements. Nothing but bounce and stab and a ravening
second. They have a bullet and automatic purpose, and they are no less full of
energy than Mozarts brain and the sharks mouth. The swiftness of purpose of
these thrushes is contrasted with the dilatoriness and procrastinations of human
beings.

The symbolic Significance of This Imagery: the Denigration of Man

The symbolic significance of the imagery in these animal poems can simply not be
ignored. It is the symbolic significance which imparts to this imagery a certain depth
and profundity. Hughes does not write about animals as if he regarded them as
mere animal. He finds in them certain qualities which link them to human life. The
symbolic animal imagery thus yields a significance which can enhance our
understanding of ourselves. Hughes believed that the strength of animals lay in
their instinct and precise function. The animals, according to him, are much more
adapted to their environment than human beings. Thus in the poem The Hawk in
the Rain, the bird sits effortlessly at a height, while the speaker in the poem is
assailed by the ferocious wind which thumbs his eyes, throws his breath, and
tackles his heart, while the rain hacks his head to the bone. Thus Hughes puts a
human being at a disadvantage by comparison with a bird. Besides, Hughes also
believed that animals were not, like man, undermined by a false morality or
incapacitated by doubt. A hawk is a hawk, whereas a an has ambitions to be God-
like and is therefore permanently frustrated. A hawk is always in its own element
even when it dies an elemental death. In the poem The Jaguar it is made clear to us
that, while man may imprison and animal, he cannot imprison an animals energy
and instinct, especially the energy and instinct of jaguar. Even in a man-made cage,
a jaguar remains true to itself. Evidently Hughes believes that human beings are
more caged in their domestic and social environment than animals are in their
cages. The Thought-Fox is also partly an animal poem, in which the poets
inspiration is compared to a fox making a sudden and silent entry into his head. In
this case, instinct replaces intellect. In the poem The Horses, the ten horses are
timeless; they inhabit their own world. They are grey, silent fragments of a grey
silent world. These horses can fully cope with the freezing cold of the morning
while the poet is unable to do so. The speaker in this poem, who is undoubtedly
Hughes himself, expresses his own inability to cope with the elements, while the
horses stand in a close relationship with those elements. The horses are as patient
as the horizons; and they endure. Hughes has here made a credo out of the
example of the horses. Like them, he wants to inhabit a timeless world and be
tested by the elements. In the poem Hawk Roosting the poet does not praise the
hawk so much as he denigrates man by comparison. The hawk is here seen as
vastly superior to man who is unable to accept Nature for what it is and, instead,
tries to tame it by giving it philosophical names. The hawk does not have mans
debilitating intellectuality or mans slavish obedience to rules.

The Symbolic Meaning of the Imagery in Thrushes

The same point is made in the poem Thrushes. These birds perform their murderous
function instinctively. Their bullet and automatic purpose puts them on a level with
Mozarts brain and the sharks mouth. But man, by comparison with these birds,
proves only his inferiority. Man is here reduced to a physically barren life in his ivory
tower, carving at a tiny ivory ornament for years.