In this article, I am going to explain to you the summary of the Poem The Thought Fox written by Ted Hughes in the simplest way possible, and read it carefully as it is one of the important works of Ted Hughes as an animal poet.
The thought fox poem is published in the debut collection of Ted Hughes called “The hawk in the rain”. The poem contains 24 lines, the first stanza has 8 lines (octave) and the next three stanzas are quatrains.
The poem is popular for its creativity, inspiration, and the process of writing poetry. Animal imagery is quite popular in the poems of Ted Hughes. He takes the example of an animal and tries to depict its qualities or aspects.
This poem is also similar where the poet sees a fox in his imagination, which is why the title of this poem is The Thought Fox. The fox is a part of his imagination and a procession starts in his mind on thinking of it and words flow in his mind. The poet has also shown how it has been completed.
Let me now take you to The Thought Fox critical analysis along with the summary in simple language so that it is understandable by anyone.
The Thought Fox By Ted Hughes Summary
Here, I am going to discuss with you The Thought Fox summary line by line, so read carefully.
The poet says that he imagines midnight time in the forest and he realizes that there is something else too alive around him besides the loneliness of the clock silently ticking and a blank page that is waiting for the poet to write on which his fingers are moving.
The poet doesn’t see any star through the window, however, deeper in the darkness, near to him is there which is entering the loneliness of the poet. And now the poet will no longer remain lonely.
It is cold time and the nose of a fox touches the twigs and leaves to sniff them this is how the fox is delicately moving in the darkness. The quick movements of the fox are presented by the repetitive use of the word “Now”. The poet says that the quick eyes of the fox check its surroundings.
The fox sets neat prints of its feet on the snow that is present between the trees. And its movement seems like that of a lame shadow following it which is unable to walk properly. However, in reality, the fox is quite bold, confident, and moving in the forest with a purpose.
The eyes of the fox get widened once seeing that he has reached the intense green and vivid part of the forest as all he could see was snow before now. The fox brilliantly and concentratedly keeps moving towards his business. Though the scenery is changing, the wishes and thoughts of the fox are the same. This is all running in the imagination of the poet.
Then suddenly, the scent of the fox enters the mind of the speaker as the fox enters the dark hole of the speaker’s mind. Earlier, the speaker could see the fox in his surrounding but later, he began to smell the fox and the fox has basically entered the mind of the fox.
The window is still the same, with no stars outside, and the clock is ticking the same way, but, by now, the empty page has been printed as the poet has completed his writing work. This fox was like an idea to the fox and his work was completed as soon as the fox stepped into its mind.
Imagination and creation are beautifully explained in the poem and the poet shows how an idea comes to his mind slowly which was earlier in the darkness and moved towards him slowly and finally it entered his mind and made him complete his work.
The Thought Fox Themes
The themes of the poem are
1. Creativity
2. Inspiration
3. Imagination.
Final Words
Here I am, concluding this article on the summary of The Thought Fox. You can let me know in the comments if you also want The Thought Fox summary PDF. Also, if you liked my content, then you can check out my other articles on the summaries of other poems by Ted Hughes like Summary Of Thrushes By Ted Hughes, and The Hawk Roosting Summary By Ted Hughes