Langston Hughes Poetry Analysis
Saying Hughes represents animals as alien and opposed to the civilised human consciousness is not a satisfactory answer or complete analysis of the seventeen poems that have been studied. It is only a generalisation. It is true that most of the poems do have animals represented as opposed to this human outlook in that the animals are shown to display cannibalism, extreme brutality, no remorse, a total lack of maternal grief as in Ravens, and, as in The Hen, the repeated killing of weak hens by the stronger. Though some portray animals with human qualities like a jaguar yearning to be back, with its freedom, in the 'wilderness' that was once its home. Saying that Hughes represents animals as alien and opposed to the civilised human consciousness
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In some poems like Ravens and Roe-Deer the poems are even describing personal experiences. This can be seen through the way he describes their appearance, nature and movement. In The Horses, for instance, he describes them as having 'draped manes and tilted hind hooves', in Roe-Deer the deer are said to move 'upright, riding their legs', in The Jaguar it is said that 'the whole world rolls under the long thrust of his [the Jaguar's] heel. Comparisons between the described animal and others in the animal world are also easily found because in Pike Hughes describes the pike as 'green tigering the gold' giving it the impression that the greatest freshwater predator, the Pike, could be related to the greatest land predator, the tiger. He is also quick to show the filth that animals can live in, again showing us another digression that animals have from civilised human life. The fact that animals will put up with such conditions in bad enough but, as portrayed in this zoo, is the fact that the cages have not been cleaned well enough by the zookeepers suggesting that they are both the same as the animals when it comes to their living conditions and welfare, uncaring? In The Jaguar he describes the cages as stinking 'of sleepers from the breathing straw' Hughes also seems fascinated with blood and animal's innards and uses it very well to emphasise anger like 'the bang of blood in the brain' as in The Jaguar or to shock, with explicit images
In some poems like Ravens and Roe-Deer the poems are even describing personal experiences. This can be seen through the way he describes their appearance, nature and movement. In The Horses, for instance, he describes them as having 'draped manes and tilted hind hooves', in Roe-Deer the deer are said to move 'upright, riding their legs', in The Jaguar it is said that 'the whole world rolls under the long thrust of his [the Jaguar's] heel. Comparisons between the described animal and others in the animal world are also easily found because in Pike Hughes describes the pike as 'green tigering the gold' giving it the impression that the greatest freshwater predator, the Pike, could be related to the greatest land predator, the tiger. He is also quick to show the filth that animals can live in, again showing us another digression that animals have from civilised human life. The fact that animals will put up with such conditions in bad enough but, as portrayed in this zoo, is the fact that the cages have not been cleaned well enough by the zookeepers suggesting that they are both the same as the animals when it comes to their living conditions and welfare, uncaring? In The Jaguar he describes the cages as stinking 'of sleepers from the breathing straw' Hughes also seems fascinated with blood and animal's innards and uses it very well to emphasise anger like 'the bang of blood in the brain' as in The Jaguar or to shock, with explicit images