The speaker sits alone late at night surrounded by forest, waiting for inspiration to strike. He senses something approaching from the darkness. A fox is seen gently moving through the snowy forest, leaving paw prints. Its eye widens as it concentrates on its path. Suddenly, the fox's scent enters the speaker's mind, providing the inspiration needed to write the poem.
The speaker sits alone late at night surrounded by forest, waiting for inspiration to strike. He senses something approaching from the darkness. A fox is seen gently moving through the snowy forest, leaving paw prints. Its eye widens as it concentrates on its path. Suddenly, the fox's scent enters the speaker's mind, providing the inspiration needed to write the poem.
The speaker sits alone late at night surrounded by forest, waiting for inspiration to strike. He senses something approaching from the darkness. A fox is seen gently moving through the snowy forest, leaving paw prints. Its eye widens as it concentrates on its path. Suddenly, the fox's scent enters the speaker's mind, providing the inspiration needed to write the poem.
(1957) I imagine this midnight moment's forest: Something else is alive Beside the clock's loneliness And this blank page where my fingers move.
Through the window I see no star:
Something more near Though deeper within darkness Is entering the loneliness:
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
Sets neat prints into the snow
Between trees, and warily a lame Shadow lags by stump and in hollow Of a body that is bold to come
Across clearings, an eye,
A widening deepening greenness, Brilliantly, concentratedly, Coming about its own business
Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox
It enters the dark hole of the head. The window is starless still; the clock ticks, The page is printed.
“The Thought Fox” Summary:
The speaker sits alone in the middle of the night, surrounded by a forest that may or may not be in his imagination. He senses that something apart from himself is alive, as the clock ticks in the silence and his fingers hover over an empty page. He can't see any stars through the window, but feels that something is approaching him from the depths of the darkness, heading towards this isolated scene. A fox gently touches its cold nose to twigs and leaves in the darkness. Its eyes scan its surroundings, again and again, from moment to moment. The fox leaves tidy paw prints in the snow as it makes its way between the trees. Its shadow trails behind it like an injured animal. The fox's body, however, moves confidently and purposefully through clearings in the forest. The fox's eye widens, its green color becoming more intense and vivid as it concentrates on what's ahead —until its scent suddenly becomes immediate and visceral, and the fox enters the darkness of the speaker's mind. The speaker still can't see any stars through the window. The clock is still ticking, and the poem has been written. Thought Fox Context: The Thought Fox is a poem by Ted Hughes on the process of creativity in the work of a poet. An important lesson on the role of disciplined creativity. Written in 1957, it represents a very personal description of the experience of being an artist producing poetry.
The Thought-Fox Themes
The Act of Writing "The Thought-Fox" provides a metaphorical glimpse into the act of writing—or, more precisely, one poet's struggle to write. The poem explicitly mentions the loneliness writing demands, and the late nights many writers spend slaving over their work, waiting for inspiration to strike, or obsessively exploring an idea. At the same time, "The Thought-Fox" also suggests that writing is innate and organic: while a specific image or event may inspire a first line, a poem ultimately comes from the dark forest of its poet's mind. Inspiration Ironically, the fickle nature of inspiration inspires "The Thought-Fox. " The speaker's feeling that "something more near" lurks beneath his window outside, closer than the night's absent stars, suggests that inspiration need not be lofty; it can be right in front of us, waiting for us take notice. Just before the "sudden sharp hot stink of fox" enters "the dark hole" of the speaker's head, the speaker remarks that the fox is merely "Coming about its own business." There is nothing particularly special about this fox, besides the fact that it was in the right place at the right time, and the speaker happened to pay attention to him. Nature Nature plays a powerful role across Hughes' body of work, and "The Thought-Fox" is no exception. The poem takes place in a home near the edge of the forest on a dark, snowy night. This setting corresponds to the loneliness writing often involves, while the dark, dense forest represents creative potency lying dormant, waiting to be activated. The poem suggests that being a writer is like living alone in the middle of this forest, unsure of what lies beyond its clearing, but both anxious and eager to discover what lurks in its depths. Specifically, the fox bears a personal significance for Hughes, which will be explored later in this guide.
The Thought-Fox Literary Elements
Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View first person speaker Form and Meter six stanzas of four lines each, no set rhyme scheme Metaphors and Similes "Cold, delicately as the dark snow/ A fox's nose touches twig, leaf;" The speaker compares the manner in which the fox inspects a tree branch to the "delicate" snow. "...an eye/...Coming about its own business,/ Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox/ It enters the dark hole of the head." The speaker compares the fox, specifically the fox's eye, to the sudden shock of an idea. Alliteration and Assonance "I imagine this midnight moment's forest:" Repetition of "m" sounds "Something else is alive/ Beside the clock's loneliness" Repetition of "s" sounds "Though deeper within darkness" Repetition of "d" sounds "Sets neat prints into the snow" Repetition of "s" and "t" sounds "Of a body that is bold to come" Repetition of "o," "b," and "d" sounds "Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox" Repetition of "t" and "s" sounds Irony "The Thought Fox," ironically, is inspired by the speaker's lack of inspiration. Genre modern poetry, ars poetica Setting a home near the forest Tone pensive, lonely Protagonist and Antagonist The speaker is the protagonist, writer's block is the antagonist Major Conflict The major conflict lies between the speaker and himself, or the absence of inspiration. Climax The poem's climax occurs in lines 25 and 26, when an idea strikes the speaker with "a sudden sharp hot stink of fox." Foreshadowing In the first two stanzas, the speaker foreshadows the introduction of a significant figure or image when he feels that "something else is alive" and "more near" on the dark, lonely night. Allusions Line 5, when the speaker mentions that he "see[s] no star" through his window, could be an allusion to poems and poetic sequences that begin with an invocation, or a call to a poetic muse for inspiration, often allegorized as a star. An example of this could be Philip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella. The poem's setting also echoes the work of Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whose speakers often find themselves alone in the middle of the night, inspired by a dream or late-night idea to stay up and write. Metonymy and Synecdoche "Two eyes serve a movement, that now/ And again, and now, and now/ Sets neat prints into the snow..." "Two eyes" functions as a metonymy for the fox. Hyperbole "...an eye,/ A widening deepening greenness,/ Brilliantly, concentratedly" The speaker zooms in on the fox's eye, exaggerating its image, to emphasize the poetic potency contained in this symbol of vision, perspective, and inspiration. Onomatopoeia "...the clock ticks" The sound of the clock's tick contrasts the poem's silence and emphasizes the speaker's loneliness.