The Thought Fox

This is a poem about writing a poem. Its action appears to take place in a room late at night where the poet is sitting alone at his desk. But the poet senses a presence in his mind which disturbs him.

The presence appears at first in the darkness beyond his thoughts but it slowly takes shape like a fox in the night and eventually becomes real as a poem inside his mind.

Ted Hughes was born in 1930 in Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire. His early years were lived in a rural setting where he learnt the love of nature and its creatures.

He would later study at Cambridge University where he and some fellow students produced a poetry journal. It was at the launch of this journal that he met the American poet, Sylvia Plath, whom he soon married.

Hughes believed that poetry and magic were intertwined. Each is a healer. Each is the means to transport the human spirit from the dark, subconscious side of human nature into the world of light and well-being.

Poetry therefore lies in the world of creation, in the world of everyday miracles. It is the pathway into the realm of the imagination, the journey into the inner universe and exploration of the genuine self.

The modern world, said Hughes, overvalues the rational, objective side of human nature. Such beliefs cause fear and pain. Healing and renewal, on the other hand, are the true purpose of poetry and magic.

The poet is therefore a shaman -- a magical medicine man who makes journeys to the underworld of the subconscious to bring back lost souls.

His wife, Sylvia Plath, committed suicide in February 1963 and her death affected Hughes profoundly. It would take four years before he published again -- and this collection contained some truly bleak poems.

Hughes died of a heart attack in October 1998 while undergoing treatment for colon cancer. He was then 68 years of age.

Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:


"I imagine this midnight moment's forest:
Something else is alive
Beside the clock's loneliness
And this blank page where my fingers move."

• What is the poet actually doing? How do you know? (4)

[Need help?]

The poet is writing a poem about a fox. How does one know? He uses such words as "imagine" and "this blank page" on which his fingers move. In the last stanza, the poet will also state that the "page is printed" and the poem is published.

• What time of day is it? (2)

[Need help?]

The poet says that it is midnight. But this, of course, is only midnight in his imagination. Indeed, the poet is writing a poem about it being midnight. We are not in fact given any information about the actual time of day when the poet was writing.

• The poet says that something else is "alive". What does he mean when he uses the word "alive"? (1)

[Need help?]

Being "alive" means "being real".

• What FOUR things are there that are alive? (4)

[Need help?]

The poet says that the clock is real. So is the clock's loneliness -- and, by loneliness, the poet is probably referring to his own loneliness which is reflected in the clock's solitary ticking away the time. The blank page upon which the poet is writing is also real. He really is writing a poem, using real paper, pen and ink. The poet says that the fox is alive but he is deceiving us here. He is not talking about "alive" in the real sense of the word but rather "alive" in the poet's imagination -- and therefore in the reader's imagination.

• How do you know that the poet is not using a computer to write this poem? (2)

[Need help?]

In the first place, computers had not been invented when the poet wrote this poem. But the poet also refers to the blank page of paper on which he is writing, and to the fact that his fingers are moving. Of course, he could perhaps be typing the poem, using a typewriter. Ever heard of one of those things? But this is also doubtful because the poet later described the words in ink as being the fox's paw prints on the paper.

• What figure of speech or language device is used in the words "midnight moment's forest"? Why has the poet used that language device? (4)

[Need help?]

The poet has used alliteration, in this case the alliterated "m" sound. Why has he used it? Probably because alliteration causes a delicious poetic effect, giving a musical quality to the poem. One could also argue, however, that the alliterated "m" creates a musing tone to indicate that the poet is thinking. One often says, "Mmmmmmm" when one is thinking -- and this poem is about thinking, about imagining a world in which a fox lives.

• Why is the clock said to be "lonely"? (4)

[Need help?]

It is a very lonely experience listening to a clock ticking at midnight. Everyone else is asleep. The night has become a dark shell and the slow tick-tock marks the gentle passing of time. But it is the poet, of course, who is lonely. What does one call this transfer of a description from one thing to another, transferring the poet's loneliness onto the clock? Is it not an example of transferred epithet?

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"Cold, delicately as the dark snow
A fox's nose touches twig, leaf;
Two eyes serve a movement, that now
And again now, and now, and now."

• What does the poet mention that is cold? (2)

[Need help?]

The snow is cold. So is the fox's nose.

• Explain what the poet is attempting to do when he repeats the words "and now". (2)

[Need help?]

Is not the poet using staccato rhythm to indicate the fox's hesitance as it moves through the forest? The fox moves and then stops, moves again and then stops.

• Explain the way in which the fox appears.  (4)

[Need help?]

At first we have just the dark, cold snow. Then a cold nose appears. Then the eyes appear. But the fox is furtive, not wishing to move too quickly lest his presence is seen. He therefore moves and stops, moves and stops, moves again and then stops.

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