The Thought Fox

The Thought Fox
(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.

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The Thought Fox

Through the window I see no star:

Cold, delicately as the dark snow

Sets neat prints into the snow

Across clearings, an eye,

Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox

“The Thought Fox” Summary:

The Thought-Fox Themes

The Thought-Fox Literary Elements

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