Ted Hughes’ poem ‘The Jaguar’ describes the animals in a zoo and their lifestyles. It also compares them to the jaguar, which is an animal that lives differently to the others in the way that it views its life. The poem depicts the jaguar as powerful, but in what way?
The first line of Ted Hughes’ poem the jaguar is:
“The apes yawn and adore their fleas in the sun.”
From the very first three words it is clear that the apes are tired, and the fact that they are in the sun adds to the sleepy air. I think this line was deliberately chosen to begin to convey the monotonous lull of everyday life in the zoo and set a drowsy mood.
the second line has a rather different tone; it tells of the parrots that screech as if on fire. Parrots do indeed screech, so this is literal, but it has connotations of pain or perhaps boredom. Obviously they are not literally on fire, so these words could have been chosen to help exhibit their brightly coloured feathers. The end of the line includes enjambment and expresses how the parrots strut like “cheap tarts to attract the stroller with the nut.” “Cheap tarts” may also have connotations of the bright, tacky colours of parrots’ feathers, but the parrots also mean to attract attention with their screeches and strutting.
Line three goes on to speak of the tiger and lion, who are apparently “fatigued with indolence”. Again the tone is of sleepiness and possibly boredom, The next stanza opens with the following line:
“But who runs like the rest past these arrives”
This line does not explain of whom it is in regard therefore we have yet to learn that the animal is the jaguar. Immediately it strikes me as being a far more active situation than all those described in previous verses. The use of the word ‘but’ is quite effective in that it immediately breaks the tone and the reader knows that something different is about to be described. Already it is evident that this animal is living more as it would in it’s natural environment, which is quite refreshing in comparison to the droning lifestyles of the other animals encountered earlier. The cage at which the creature arrives is observed by a crowd, which “stands, stares, mesmerised”. The people are captured by the animal and in awe of it. The monosyllabic words are used with the effect of being abrupt to fit with the feeling of the poem much like the way Hughes use harsh short words in”The Thistle“. The crowd appear to be standing and staring very suddenly in amazement, which is in sharp contrast to the other animals,.
The jaguar is certainly dissimilar to the other animals in every way that has been described. It is swift and angry whereas the other animals were sleeping or “fatigued with indolence”. The jaguar is “hurrying enraged through prison darkness after the drills of his eyes”. More negative images are conveyed here; prison, darkness, drills. The images of the sun and nursery walls are banished. The jaguar is in captivity so literally imprisoned and the darkness that surrounds him I feel is not the darkness that a free jaguar encounters but rather the hostile darkness that surrounds a prisoner. He is running after his eyes, which are described as drills because they are so sharp and striking. The jaguar is following nothing but his eyes and therefore his instincts.
Stanza three finishes this, and the next stanza completes the sentence with:
“On a short fierce fuse”.
the abrupt diction is effective in that the words are written in their definitions; short and fierce themselves. The three words depict the short temper of the jaguar and therefore its powerful.
The second line says that the eye of the jaguar is “satisfied to be blind in fire”, meaning that the jaguar is ignorant of suffering, by his own choice.
‘The bang of blood’ indicates a growing intensity, and the monosyllabic words
. The conclusive line is part of this sentence also and declares that there is “no cage to him”. This metaphor indicates the jaguar’s view of his life in captivity – he doesn’t seem to see himself as trapped like the other animals appear to, rather a creature of free will who acts as he wishes.
The next stanza opens with the ending to the preceding sentence with the words “More than to the visionary his cell”. This metaphoric sentence continues my point about the jaguar being an animal who does as he likes, whose only entrapment is the cell. Although the cell is there, it is not an issue to the jaguar. This is a clever contrast to the image of the other animals like the tiger and lion, who lie sleeping under straw in their cages. This is reinforced by the proceeding sentence, which describes his stride as “wildernesses of freedom”. This again discusses the wide open spaces that the jaguar feels he occupies. “The world rolls under the long thrust of his heel” boasts the penultimate sentence. The jaguar is a ruler, a king in his own right, and he has the power to transport himself back to his homeland in his mind. He feels that the world is his oyster, and his disregard of the cage that confines him. The final line also delineates this:
“Over the cage floor the horizons come.”
The jaguar is seeing his homeland, where he was free to “run like the rest” .and sees the horizons on the vast plains. He believes he can see the country and so the cage floor is insignificant and serves only to accommodate the forests of his country.
