horses
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
Horses
Edwin Muir
Background
• Muir was born in 1887 on a farm in the Orkney Islands where he lived a happy childhood.
• At the age of 14, he moved with his family to Glasgow, which he came to regard as a descent from Eden into hell.
• He became a critic and a translator as well as a poet.• He died in 1959.
Summary
• The sight of the horses now, in the present, leads the speaker to consider his feelings towards horses when he was a child:
• “Perhaps some childish hour has come again.”
• Find a quote to justify this point.
Stanza 1
• Look up the meaning of “lumbering” and then consider the way it contrasts with the description in lines 3-4.
• Look closely at the meanings of “terrible”, “wild” and “strange.”
Stanza 2
• There is a shift in time in Stanza 2.• The rest of the poem deals with the speakers
recollection of his feelings as a child.
• What impression do you feel is created by the simile of the “pistons”?
Stanza 3
• In this stanza there are references made to the pre-industrial age.
• Can you find any examples?
• “conquering hooves”, “ritual”, “seraphim of gold” and “mute ecstatic monsters”.
Stanza 4 and 5
• What do you think about the tone in stanza 4.
• List all the words that are used to describe the horses, what does this reveal about the speakers attitude?
• What contrast is signaled by the use of “But when at dusk…” at the beginning of stanza 5?
• What do you make of “mysterious fire” here and the “magic power” attributed to the present day horses in stanza 1?
Stanza 6
• Analyze the effectiveness of the imagery: the “cruel apocalyptic light” of their eyes and the personification of the wind.
Stanza 7
• Read the whole poem again in pairs.• Having studied closely the previous stanzas,
how do you now feel that the final stanza should be spoken?
• How does the tone here differ to the tone in other parts of the poem.
Thematic Links
• Nature• Time