Horses - Edwin Muir

Horses

Edwin Muir

Summary of the Poem:

A horse lover (for their majesty and strength) recalls his childhood and his experience through the industrial revolution.

               

Structure/ text level analysis

1.       Constant caesura throughout the poem.

a.       Illustrates the poet’s attempt to try and recall the past. Note that there are a lot found especially towards the beginning of the poem in the first few stanzas of the poem.

b.      “It fades! It fades!” The use of the “!” is used as an enjambment to demonstrate how much the poet wishes to continue replaying his memories despite him being unable to do so. Thus the word “fades”

2.       Rhyme scheme

a.       AABB rhyme scheme throughout, with the exception of the masculine rhyme and the lost rhyme, which both still are found consecutively.

b.      Masculine rhyme at the last stanza

                                                               i.      “Pine”, “Crystalline”

                                                             ii.      Indicates the masculinity and heavy industry usually perceived during the industrial revolution.

c.       Lost rhyme found in the first and second last stanza.

                                                               i.      “plough”, “now”

                                                             ii.      “wind”, “blind”

                                                            iii.      Demonstrates how that in the end, we get lost in time. These are words that used to rhyme in Shakesperean times. 

3.       Time shift as you continue to read on  in the story

a.       Medieval times

                                                               i.      The bare field

                                                             ii.      Reference to magic

b.      Industrial period

                                                               i.      Blackening rain

1.       Reference to soot and air pollution

                                                             ii.      Childish hour

1.       Obviously, his childhood.

                                                            iii.      The end of the world

1.       The Rapture

2.       The cruel apocalyptic night

Signs of literary techniques

1.       Similes

a.       Helps the reader to imagine the place described, which allows the reader to empathise with the poet and see the way he sees the world metaphorically.

b.      This can be an attempt to portray to the reader the horses’ majesty and elegance.

2.       Personification

a.       Makes his past look surreal. Indication that his past is probably biased to shift things in a more positive mood.

b.      On the other hand, it makes the horses look as creatures not of this world but from probably a world different and even more perfect than the world we live in.

c.       Their manes the leaping ire of the wind

d.      Like magic power of the stony grange

3.       Imagery

a.       Biblical image of the horses

                                                           iv.      The word “Sacred” in the phrase “were ritual that turned the field to brown” in the third stanza.

                                                             v.      The word “Rapture” and “apocalyptic” in the poem.

1.       Used to portray the horses as gods or creatures that were perfectly shaped out of the image of god. This is obviously a blatant sign of his admiration.

2.       The poet’s use of words describing the end of the world  illustrate the poet’s faith in the horses being able to overcome any obstacle, even the end of the world and death itself.

b.      The past of the poet

                                                           vi.      Note that the horses were mentioned all throughout time, giving them an image of being immortal creatures. They also link with divinity as they are referred to as creatures that will be in the past, present and the future all at the same time.

                                                          vii.      Dreamlike

1.       The Country Crystalline.

2.       The juxtaposition in “Move up and down, yet seen as standing still”

3.       “Black field and the still standing trees”

c.       Imagery on the industrial revolution.

4.       Repetition

a.      “It fades! It fades!” Used to once again exaggerate how much the poet is distressed over the fact that he is unable to recall the memories of his past once again as it starts to leave him.

5.       Alliteration

a.        “country crystalline”

                                                        viii.      Crystals are transparent but reflective.

1.       Portrays how much the author vividly remembers certain periods of time in his life but only in periodicals.

b.      “broad-breasted”

c.       “Still standing tree”

d.      Note how these are all alliterations used when describing things, used to exemplify and accentuate the descriptions from the poet.

6.       Metaphor

a.       Sinking sun. Fourth stanza. Another piece of imagery used to represent the Sun setting and the night coming forth.

Identify the speaker in the poem: The poet himself, Edwin Muir

Identify the speaker’s attitude towards the subject of the poem:

The writer thinks of horses as creatures closest to god and how they are omniscient in their own special way in his own perspective.

Paired poems

1.       The Pike, as both poets in this context share a equal respect for their animal of choice. They describe their animals in their own special way, sometimes similarly and sometimes differently, which we can address to give contrast and vice versa.

Memorable lines

1.       “Those lumbering horses in the steady plough”
“When I watched fearful, through the blackening rain,”
“Their hooves like pistons in an ancient mill”
“And oh the rapture, when, one furrow done”
Sign of a time shift

2.       ”The manes the leaping ire of the wind”  Personificaton

3.       “Ah, now it fades! It fades!” Enjambment and Repetition