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“The Thought Fox”

 "The Thought Fox" is one of Ted Hughes most popular poems, and was first published in his
1957 debut collection, The Hawk in the Rain.
 Hughes grew up in Yorkshire in fairly rural surroundings, and developed an early interest in
animals and nature. Animals appear throughout Hughes's poetry, most famously in the "Crow"
series of poems.
 Hughes has said that "The Thought Fox" was actually inspired, in part, by a dream in which a
kind of fox-man visited the poet and told him to reject overly intellectual or academic writing—
favouring a more instinctive (or, fox-like) approach to creativity.

Form and Tone

 The poem is composed of 24 lines, divided into 6 quatrains.

 It is free flowing, without any particular rhyme scheme, and is written in the blank verse. The
tone is pensive and has a tinge of loneliness. The structure is somewhat circular as the poem
ends with the same images of the clock, the starless sky as seen from the window and the sheet
of paper, with which it began.

The Thought-Fox

I imagine this midnight moment's forest:

Something else is alive
Beside the clock's loneliness
And this blank page where my fingers move.

Through the window I see no star:

Something more near
Though deeper within darkness
Is entering the loneliness:

Cold, delicately as the dark snow

A fox's nose touches twig, leaf;
Two eyes serve a movement, that now
And again now, and now, and now

Sets neat prints into the snow

Between trees, and warily a lame
Shadow lags by stump and in hollow
Of a body that is bold to come

Across clearings, an eye,

A widening deepening greenness,
Brilliantly, concentratedly,
Coming about its own business
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Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox

It enters the dark hole of the head.
The window is starless still; the clock ticks,
The page is printed.

Summary

The speaker sits alone in the middle of the night, surrounded by a forest that may or may not be in his
imagination. He senses that something apart from himself is alive, as the clock ticks in the silence and
his fingers hover over an empty page. He can't see any stars through the window, but feels that
something is approaching him from the depths of the darkness, heading towards this isolated scene.

A fox gently touches its cold nose to twigs and leaves in the darkness. Its eyes scan its
surroundings, again and again, from moment to moment.

The fox leaves tidy paw prints in the snow as it makes its way between the trees. Its shadow trails
behind it like an injured animal. The fox's body, however, moves confidently and purposefully through
clearings in the forest.

The fox's eye widens, its green color becoming more intense and vivid as it concentrates on what's
ahead—until its scent suddenly becomes immediate and visceral, and the fox enters the darkness of
the speaker's mind. The speaker still can't see any stars through the window. The clock is still ticking,
and the poem has been written.

Line by Line Analysis

1. I imagine…alive- The poet is busy composing the poem at midnight. He imagines that moment
in a forest. Midnight moment’s forest-the appearance of the forest at that moment.

2. Something else is alive— he feels that some other creature is also awake at that moment.

3. Clock’s loneliness– the only sound heard is the ticking of the clock. The poet personifies the
clock and says that it was all alone.

4. Blank page where my fingers move- his fingers move on the blank sheet of paper as he writes
his poem.

5. Window…no star- He looks out of the window. It is pitch dark and there is not even a single
star to illuminate the world.

6-8. Something more near…loneliness- He is unable to see any star but he senses the presence of
something else. He feels that it is not just a fleeting airy local presence but one which has a form
going far deeper into the darkness.

9-10. Cold, delicate…leaf– Suddenly he feels a fall in the temperature. The cold touch is very
delicate, like a fox smelling a twig, a leaf.
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11-13. Two eyes serve…snow– The poet recognizes the two staring eyes, the source of his inspiration.
Hughes often speaks of staring eyes. Here he refers to the eyes of a fox but in several later poems,
inspiration reaches him through the two staring eyes of a wolf. He is able to see very clearly the
repeated movement of the eyes of the fox. They set neat prints everywhere on the ‘snow.

13-16: Making its way between the trees, the fox leaves behind his footprints on the snow. His shadow
lags behind him hesitantly, like an injured animal, but his body is brimming with boldness and
confidence as he moves in the forest. His movement, unlike its wary shadow, is purposeful and poised,
which is also evident from the neatness of his footprints as this could only be achieved by a self-
assured and composed stance.

As the poet moves further in his creative process, there are moments when he is filled with doubts
and uncertainties, but he manages to overcome it and develops a bold and instinctive stance that
lends surety and conviction to his expression.

17-20: The fox’s gaze widens and he looks across the forest clearing which starts to seem greener to
his expanded vision. He is engulfed by the brilliancy of what he sees, the vividness and intensity of the
colours, and thus mesmerised, he now puts all his focus to what lays ahead. His eyes are now solely
concentrated on creating his own vision of the sight that his eyes see.

This is the part of the creative process when the poet puts into his own words what he witnesses
around him and lends it the originality of thought and perception. Finally discovering the thought that
shall illuminate his words, the poet is now ready for the next step in the process.

21-24: Finally, the fox now seems to enter the poet’s head, merging into his subconscious so that both
this creature and the mind of the poet are now one. They have both reached the climax of the creative
process. The scent of the fox engulfs the poet’s senses, filling the ‘dark hole’ in his head, blending with
his own instincts.

The poet now turns his attention back to the real world, finding that no change has occurred in his
physical surroundings. The night is still starless and the clock is still ticking- yet, something inside of
him has changed, having undergone a complete transformation which can be seen on the blank sheet
of paper which is now printed with his words. The creative process has thus culminated and the sheet
now bears the poetry of his heart.

Literary Devices

The forest in the first stanza is a metaphor for the unconscious mind of the poet which is as
mysterious as the dark forest. In the same stanza, clock has been personified as lonely.

Repetition of ‘now’ is skilfully used in the third stanza to describe the movement of the fox. There is
also a repetition of various symbols such as the window, the clock, the sheet of paper, the darkness of
the forest and the cold, which serves to emphasize the central idea of the poem.

Imagery is intense and vivid throughout the poem.

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Simile is used in line 9 (cold, delicately as the dark snow) to compare the gentle movement of the fox
to the delicate snow.

In line 11, ‘two eyes’ work as metonymy for the fox.

The “clock ticks” in line 23 is an example of onomatopoeia.

Alliteration has been employed in various places across the poem such as in line 1 (midnight
moment’s), line 10 (touches twig), line 16 (body that is bold) and line 24 (page is printed). There are
also multiple instances where assonance and consonance have been used.