POEM

ANALYSI
S
 NOTES:
THE JAGUAR
The Back Story: Ted Hughes
‘The Jaguar’ was published in The Hawk in the Rain in 1957. Throughout the poem, Hughes
uses figurative language and imagery to depict the differences between the jaguar and the other
creatures, even cats, that live in the zoo. The jaguar attracts all manner of attention from the
crowds at the zoo, far more than any of the other animals. This is all due to the power and
freedom of spirit that the cat has maintained. The human visitors can sense this and are drawn to
it.
In the first two stanzas of ‘The Jaguar,’ Hughes speaker describes a few of the many depressed
animals that make up a zoo. They include parrots shrieking for food, apes, and lethargic lions
and tigers. He also makes sure, within these lines, to emphasize how “un-wild” these animals
are, suggesting that something more, besides their freedom, has been taken from them.

In the middle of the poem, he brings in a young child visiting the zoo and uses him to draw the
poem towards the jaguar, the centerpiece of the zoo. The cat appears to be, by the speaker’s
account, the only animal that has a depressed representative of its species. Its power is on full
display as the speaker alludes to the wildness that still resides within the cat’s eyes and heart.

Themes:
 Freedom
 Resistance
 Captivity
All three of these are linked together in the form of the jaguar and his strength in the face of
seemingly impossible odds. The poet draws the reader’s attention to the jaguar, allowing them to
marvel over the animal just as the spectators in the zoo do. But, what the poet adds to the
experience is something of the jaguar’s own emotions. He is able to portray the creature’s
feelings as it stalks across the cage, as well as its potential. He continues to push back, at least
emotionally, against its captivity. The jaguar has not had his spirit broken.
Structures and forms:
 six-stanza poem that is separated into sets of four lines, known as quatrains.
 These quatrains do not follow a specific rhyme scheme but there are several
full rhymes and half-rhymes. For example, the ends of lines two and three of the first
stanza, with “strut” and “nut” are full, or perfect, rhymes. While “straw” and “wall” in
lines three and four of the second stanza are half-rhymes with the long “a” vowel sound.

 There is another interesting half-rhyme with “arrives” and “mesmerized” in lines one and
two of the fourth stanza.

Literary Devices:

 Anaphora
 Alleteration
 Caesura

The first of these, anaphora, appears when the poet uses and reuses the same words at the
beginning of multiple lines of verse. For example, “The,” which starts the first two lines of the
poem.

There are also examples of caesurae. This technique is seen when the poet uses punctuation,
or meter, to create a pause in the middle of a line. For example, line one of the second stanza. It
reads: “Lie still as the sun. The boa-constriktor’s coil”. Or, there is another excellent example in
the third line of that same stanza. It reads: “Is a fossil. Cage after cage seems empty, or”.

There are also a few examples of alliteration. The use and reuse of consonant sounds at the
beginning of words. For example, “strut” and “stroller” in lines two and three of the first stanza
and “darkness” and “dreams” in line four of the fourth stanza.

Analysis:

The 1st stanza:

 The speaker outlines a few animals in a zoo. It’s not until the third line that it is made
clear that this is the case, but it’s quite clear at that point. The speaker takes note of the
parrots and how they shriek, seeking out the “stroller with the nut”.
 Visitors to the zoo are bringing the creatures bits and pieces to eat, and they know well
when they’re going to eat.
 This is one of the first examples of the changed behavior of animals in this environment.
In the wild, the parrots would not have any desire to attack a human’s attention. There is
also an interesting simile in these lines when the poet compares the shrieking parrots to
“cheap tarts,” or prostitutes, who are trying to attract customers.
 He also emphasises the lack of exercise or even simple activity that very active creatures,
tigers and lions, are experiencing in the zoo. They are so inactive, so lazy, that they’re
tires out by it. This is something of a hyperbole, but it also speaks to how captivity
changes the creatures it is imposed upon.

The 2nd and 3rd stanza:

 The last line of the first stanza is

enjambed. This means that the second half of the phrase appears in the first line of the
second stanza.
 The speaker adds that these large cats spend their days lying “still as the sun,” and likely
in the sun as well. The world of animals in the zoo is so un-animal-like that it seems more
like a painting “on a nursery wall” than it does a real collection of living creatures.
 The other lines in this stanza supports that point, as the boa-constriktor’s coil is compared
to a fossil, and the cages “seem” empty even if they’re not.
 Plus, in the third line, Hughes describes them as sucking of “sleepers”. Its the smell of
these animals, more than their appearance or their actions that strikes visitors.

The 4th and 5th stanza:

 The speaker changes the poem in the next lines, focusing on a young visitor to the zoo.
This child runs, as everyone does, to a very specific cage. He already knows what he’s
going to see there, a jaguar.

 This large cat is different from the other animals in the zoo. The fire in his heart has not
been put out. The cat still has its wild instincts and desires. This might be to do with the
period the creatures have been there or perhaps to do with something deeper in this
particular animal.
 The last line of this stanza conveys the spirit of the animal in a clear and powerful way.
There is “no cage to him,” Hughes says, before breaking the line.

The 6th stanza:

 In the final four lines of ‘The Jaguar,’ the speaker concludes by hints at the jaguar’s
boundless energy, life, and potential. He describes the creature powerfully, with a
“stride” that still contains the “wilderness” he belongs to.
 In the last line, the phrase “the horizons come” suggests that these animals have yet to
give up on the future. It has determination and power in a way that the other animals no
longer do or never did.
 Depending on how one reads this poem, it is easy to envision this same dynamic playing
out among a group of people or various groups symbolized by the jaguar.