The Horses by Ted Hughes (Detailed analysis)

Detailed analysis by Claire's Notes of The Horses by Ted Hughes.
Ted Hughes: Cambridge iGCSE
"The Horses" by Ted Hughes describes a profound early morning encounter with a group of horses. The poem opens with the stillness and silence of dawn, creating a sense of awe and reverence. Hughes vividly portrays the horses as powerful, almost mystical beings, standing motionless and majestic. The themes of nature's beauty, tranquillity, and the human connection to the natural world are central to the poem. The encounter leaves a lasting impression on the speaker, highlighting the serene yet powerful presence of the horses. Hughes’ use of imagery and language emphasizes the sacred and timeless quality of this experience in nature.
The Horses by Ted Hughes
I climbed through woods in the hour-before-dawn dark.
Evil air, a frost-making stillness,
Not a leaf, not a bird -
A world cast in frost. I came out above the wood
Where my breath left tortuous statues in the iron light.
But the valleys were draining the darkness
Till the moorline - blackening dregs of the brightening grey -
Halved the sky ahead. And I saw the horses:
Huge in the dense grey - ten together -
Megalith-still. They breathed, making no move,
With draped manes and tilted hind-hooves,
Making no sound.
I passed: not one snorted or jerked its head.
Grey silent fragments
Of a grey still world.
I listened in emptiness on the moor-ridge.
The curlew’s tear turned its edge on the silence.
Slowly detail leafed from the darkness. Then the sun
Orange, red, red erupted
Silently, and splitting to its core tore and flung cloud,
Shook the gulf open, showed blue,
And the big planets hanging -
I turned
Stumbling in a fever of a dream, down towards
The dark woods, from the kindling tops,
 
And came the horses.
There, still they stood,
But now steaming, and glistening under the flow of light,
Their draped stone manes, their tilted hind-hooves
Stirring under a thaw while all around them
The frost showed its fires. But still they made no sound.
Not one snorted or stamped,
Their hung heads patient as the horizons,
High over valleys, in the red levelling rays -
In din of the crowded streets, going among the years, the faces,
May I still meet my memory in so lonely a place
Between the streams and the red clouds, hearing curlews,
Hearing the horizons endure.
My poetry videos all have the same structure: I start by putting the poem into its historical and biographical context where this enhances its understanding and give a short summary of the poem itself; I then look at the poem in its entirety, picking out structural features, such as metre (rhythm), any rhyming and patterns in language which the poet uses; I finish by going through the poem on a line-by-line basis, giving definitions of words and offering an interpretation of the poet’s words with justification. Most of the terminology I use (in green) is provided with a definition below, so even if you haven’t come across it before, you should still be able to understand the points I am making.
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I have been an English teacher and private tutor for more than 20 years.
Please note that any literature analysis is highly subjective and may disagree with analysis by another person. All interpretations are valid if they can be justified by reference to the text. This interpretation is my own: it is not exhaustive and there are alternatives!
Please leave any comments or questions below.

[@julianrampaul2942]

Such a great masterpiece this is.

[@ClairesNotes]

It's a great poem, isn't it?

[@user-he4ge7qf5n]

Thank U
I would like you to explain the metaphors again plz❤

[@ClairesNotes]

Give me an example and I'll do my best.