This article is also the answer to the question given below.
How precise and accurate, in your opinion, is the use of images
and symbols made by Ted Hughes in his poem The Thought Fox to illustrate the creative process
in art, especially poetry?
Ted Hughes was a British multi-talented poet, known as the poet of animals
and kids. He was a famous writer and translator of the 20th century. He had so
many other qualities too. Hughes was born in 1930 and died in 1998. He
lived in rural areas where so many animals were. When Hughes moved to
the city, there existed so many areas and open lands, which are the world's
most beautiful sceneries. Because he spent his life in those areas where there
were animals and natural beauty, which is why he has described many animals
like horses, crows, foxes, wolves, bears, and others in his poetry. He has
furthermore described the beauty of nature in his poetry.
He belonged to the Modern Period, so there are many elements of
modern poetry in his poetry. He has used symbolism and mythology on an extreme
level in his poetry. And through this, he has depicted both the good and evil
sides of the people in the society.
His writing style is very much unique. He has used myths. He was
habitual in choosing difficult words to convey a simple message. The hyperbole
technique is also present in his works.
The themes of Ted Hughes's poems are violence, savagery,
oppression, dictatorship, and others. By depicting animals, in his poetry, he
has shown the inner face of the people of the Modern World.
The Thought fox is a poem by Ted Hughes. The central theme of this
poem is the act of writing. By the setting of the poem, it is clear that for Ted
Hughes loneliness and imagination are the two significant factors that are
helpful for a poet to write a piece of art that is of great importance. Forest
is the symbol of darkness, it is too deep, so like the forest, his thoughts are
too deep and dark. Because of this, he was incapable of writing, but with the
imagination, of a fox, he made his thoughts conscious, and with one perfect
conscious thought, he wrote this poem.
Before the Modern Period, the Greeks used to write with the help
of a muse. Muses were spirits, fairies, gods, goddesses, Greek mythologies, and
others, though, against these muses, Ted Hughes describes something new in this
poem. The imagination of the fox is like a muse for him. He has used this
imagination to write poetry.
The fox is famous for cleverness.
Fox can deceive anyone easily. In our childhood, we read a story of a fox and a
crow. We remember how a fox got the morsel of a crow. The above analysis shows
that Ted Hughes has used this animal (fox) in this poem to symbolize the
thought process, and the fox is used as a symbol to create a piece of art. The
whole setting of the poem, the description of the forest, night, and fox, shows
that he has used imagery and symbolism in his poetry very precisely to
illustrate the creative process in art, especially in poetry.
