the thought fox

the text of the poem is on page 3 of your books

recording of Ted Hughes reading the poem *

video of Ted Hughes introducing the poem and reading it *

some introductory thoughts on what the poem is about

• According to Hughes, this poem was inspired by a vivid and memorable dream he had as a student about a burnt fox with human hands.  Throughout his life, Hughes was fascinated by intuitive sources of inspiration, and these included occult practices.  As with a number of famous poets (have a look at W. B. Yeats, for example), the inspiration over time contributed to Hughes's own mythology, and this included myths about inspiration itself, as well as story-lines and characters.

• Hughes liked to tell the story of this pivotal dream coming at a crisis-point in his life as a student.  When at Pembroke College Cambridge (pictured above), studying English Literature, he became bored and frustrated at the constant production-line of critical essays he was expected to generate.  Following a turning-point moment, associated in Hughes's story-telling with the dream of the burnt fox, Hughes abandoned his study of literature and instead studied archaeology and anthropology.

• The fox is a powerful symbol of inspiration, something which poets always seek, but often find hard to sustain.  It's really interesting that Hughes attaches so much significance to a fox, a creature which is very common in England, in towns as well as in the countryside.  It's a wild creature which tends to stay away from being up close to humans, who usually consider the creature a feral nuisance.  Hughes often told the story of when he was a young boy, out near a local canal, finding a fox very close to him, and for a few moments staring at the fox, which was staring back at him, before the fox ran off.  The wild, smelly and feral fox is perhaps a typical element of Hughes's natural world - far removed from the photogenic pet dogs which are company to so many of us, and which for many people the only sustained contact they have with the natural world.

• The language moves from quiet, reflective description of a still winter's night, to the movement of the fox, symbolising the arrival of the inspiration and the poem.

• By the end, a poem has been brought into being.  The poem celebrates the idea of the arrival of inspiration but it also affirms Ted Hughes's lifelong obsession with the primeval side of nature: wild, bloody, pungent and fascinating. 

Whilst Ted Hughes's story of the dream of the burnt fox is fascinating, it shouldn’t limit us in forming our own imaginative response to the various possibilities for meaning in the poem.  

some questions to consider

• Why does Hughes start his poem in the present tense ('I imagine', 'my fingers move'), and why does he stay in that tense?

• Why is the 'midnight moment' also a 'forest'?  What does the image of a forest suggest to you?

• Why might the poet be thinking about a 'star' as he looks out the window?

• What's the effect of alliteration in phrases like 'midnight moment' and 'deeper within darkness'?

• What's the effect of the change of rhythm in the two monosyllables 'twig, leaf' in stanza three?

• Why the repetition (x 3) of the phrase 'and now' at the end of stanza three?

• Why is the shadow 'lame' compared to the 'bold' body of the fox?

• Why does Hughes talk about 'brilliantly, concentratedly, / Coming about its own business'?

• Why in this poem is Hughes using such a conventional stanza form?  How does this choice contribute to his tale of the inspirational fox?

• What do you think about the other fox poems in the links below?  Do foxes in general make good subjects for poems?

some creative writing to help you understand the poem more deeply

• Now think about your own responses to animals - what animal might you choose as subject for a poem about inspiration?  Why not try writing a poem of your own - how much are you inspired by the Hughes poem, and what might be other inspirations for you?

some other lovely poems in English about foxes, and also about dreams and poetic inspiration

• Fox * by Alice Oswald

• The Fox * by Susan Stewart

• Sonnet 1, from Astrophel and Stella * by Sir Philip Sidney

• Dreams * by Langston Hughes

An excellent, clear analysis * of The Thought Fox by Dr Oliver Tearle, a literary critic and lecturer in English at Loughborough University, England.

photo

Pembroke College, Cambridge, England - photo by James Harding