The Thought Fox Commentry

Construct a close reading of this poem that demonstrates your awareness of the poet’s body of work.

The fact that enjambment is used throughout the poem such as in the lines, “like a colour slide or press an ear against its hive” portrays a lack of structure and therefore emphasizes the initial enjoyment one feels when reading a poem before the chore of analyzing it begins. This is also emphasized through the fact that the poem is a free verse poem.

this poem and not at all think anything of the word “things” placed in two different stanzas, but

He uses this in the poem to give it rhythm to engage the reader and

The poem progresses from mourning of the deceased to praising of his achievements and fate to die before his glory withered. Therefore, the tone shifts from somber and quiet to upbeat and positive. Such shift of tone is achieved by Housman’s use of sounds. In first two stanzas, Housman describes the funeral procession as he remembers the time when the young athlete was proudly brought home after he won a race. Then, he solaces the mourners by reminding them it is better that the athlete “slip betimes away from fields where glory does not stay” (lines 9 and 10) because the laurel “withers quicker than the rose” (line 12). The soft “s” sound stands out especially in second and third stanza and it creates a sense of calm and quiet tone and evokes an image of townspeople mourning the death of their “hero”; Consonance of “s” sounds is present in words “shoulder, set, threshold, townsman, stiller, smart, slip, betimes, fields, does, stay, grows, withers, and rose.” In addition to consonance, soft sound alliteration in “road all runners” (line 5) helps to create a quiet tone. As the poem progresses into praising of the young athlete in stanzas four through seven, the consonance of hard “c”, “t”, and “f” sound become prominent. Readers can immediately detect

symbolic richness, but at the same time the poem supplies the reader with a wide

Part of what the poet does is create an occasion. For example, the poem talks about his his life working in a prison.when he is in there he fills like a prisoner and he can’t fill like he being treated right he fills empty niss in side and also how he get’s not the same rights as every one he gets treed with no respect from others and because of that he lives with no pane.

In the third stanza, a lot of imagery is used. The significant ones are present in the seventh and eleventh lines. In the first line, the poet writes, "A

As the poem progresses the word choice that he uses allows the reader to see the adaptability of the night that, that even though it

The poem’s opening line,

poem is not merely a static, decorative creation, but that it is an act of communication between the poet and

The poem is structured with 26 lines and each line is of nearly equal length. There is fluidity

quality. It is almost as if the bone has him in a powerful trance. The

Briefly mention the poem's structure. Make note of the use of Enjambment or the juxtaposition of words.

.The poet thought process is filled with hot stink" of the fox, the heat of its passion. The thought-process is saturated now, and hence hot and humid. As the poem comes into place, the window is starless still. The