Analysis on Horses Essay Example

1. The title of this poem is “Horses.” 2. It was written by Edwin Muir. 3. This poem is written in the 1st Person point of view. 4. The speaker appears to be a young man, reminiscing about the childhood days of his life. 5. The young man, who is the speaker, appears to be reminiscing about his childhood, and thinking of time long gone, when he was at his father’s farm, and everything appeared to be wondrous, albeit scary. 6. The poem has been set in a farmhouse, and in a field full of horses. The country, city, town are not known. 7. There is no conflict in this poem, if conflict is taken to be a fight, or battle of any sort (man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. self, etc.) 8. The main imagery used here is completely visual. Examples include: stony grange, seraphim of gold, broad breasted, blackening rain. There are also traces of kinesthetic imagery, such as: Warm, move up and down, standing still. 9. Yes, this poem has a rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme is as follows: a,a,b,b 10. Various sound devices have been used by the poet. These are: a. Alliteration: Broad-breasted, Sinking sun, struggling snakes, b. Near rhyme: Wind and Blind. c. Middle rhyme: I wonder why, wide as night. 11. A variety of metaphors, similes, and other figures of speech have been included in this poem. These include: a. Similes: “The furrows rolled behind like struggling snakes”, “Like magic power on a stony grange”. These similes create a heavy contrast between the real element the poet is referring to, and the element which he is comparing it with. The simile sets the atmosphere, and creates a dark, heavy feeling around the poem, giving it an unsettling, jumpy air. This is reinforced by the fact that the poet routinely compares only simple, everyday objects, with more celestial, otherworldly things. b. Metaphors: “Their eyes as brilliant and as wide as the night”, “Their manes the leaping ire of the wind”. These metaphors convey