Andeesh Syed

Horses by Edwin Muir

Recap

- In the seven stanza poem with a standard AABB rhyming scheme, the poet now a
grown man looks back on his childhood and wonders why the horses on his farm use
to inspire the feelings of awe and fear in him as a boy when now the horses seem so
ordinary. As he begins to recall the effect the horses had on him, images of magic, fire,
elemental power, industry and an almost god-like presence begin to crowd his mind. In
the final stanza, the man returns to his adult life and laments the fact that neither the
horses nor the landscape can anymore exert the once tremendous power they had
over his imagination. The magic power of his young imagination is gone forever.

Analysis/ Language / Figures of Speech

- Title and 1st Stanza - The title Horses, so seemingly simple and mundane
sets the tone for the opening lines which begin with a simple observation of
some farm horses. The adjectives used to describe the - lumbering, steady portray an ordinary an uninteresting presence which leads to the question that
begins in the following line. In that second line, the first use of cesura with a
hyphen by two commas slow down the rhythm of the poetry as the poets tone
moves towards reflection. Cesura roughly translates as to cut off. And here the
poets memory and imagination slows down and begins to move towards the
past. The nest line when They seemed terrible, so wild and strange, now the
language points something of mysterious power. The simile in Like magic
power on the stony grange, sees the poets imagination beginning to recall the
impact of the horses as his mind moves from the ordinary present to the
extraordinary past. The magic power belongs to the horses but perhaps also to
the young poets imagination.

- 2nd Stanza - The poet refers explicitly to the childish hour, when his
perception of the horses and perhaps life was so dramatically different. The
use of the word hour points to the brevity of youth and this is the first of the
poet not only reflecting on but also lamenting the Loss of his youth. Here we
also have the first mention of the fear the horses inspired the young boy as well
as the first references to the industrial revolution. The blackening rain portrays
the pollution coming from the factories while also lending an apocalyptic feel to
the scene. With the next simile - Their hooves like piston - , the horses
movements are likened to something mechanical as they work the land just as
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Andeesh Syed

pistons work in factories but the word ancient also hints that something
timeless. Then we across the word seem recalling seemed from the first
stanza, a recurring expression, as the poet even in his ambitious and poetic
form, cannot define these horses.

- 3rd Stanza - The images continue to vary. Their conquering hooves which trod
the stubble down offers a war-like vision of the horses and here is perhaps a
subtle reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Book of
Revelations which adds to the fearful apocalyptic imagery of the poem
mentioned earlier. Next, the word ritual may refer to the regular ploughing of
the fields but it is also a word charged with spiritual connotations. Great hulks
emphasise the physical size and strength of the horses but describing them as
seraphims of gold adds a metaphysical element. A Sereph is kind of celestial
or heavenly being while the liberal translation of the word Seraph means the
burning one, again adding the apocalyptic effect. The gold offers there image
of majesty and splendour. Described as mute ecstatic monsters, the horses
continue to take on an unnatural other worldly aspect incorporating both the
beautiful and the monstrous much like the snake in Judith Wrights The Hunting
Snake.

- 4th Stanza - His memory and imagination now really begins to fire. Oh, the
rapture, suggests an indication to divine power as though his youthful
perception of the horses somehow offered a kind of a spiritually connected
experience. And from that suggestion of spiritual elevation follows one of the
most poetic lines of the poem so far. They marched broad-breasted to the
sinking-sun, with its use of alliteration, Edwin images the beautiful glory of the
horses and grandeur of the sun. The word march perhaps alludes to the warlike image used earlier at conquering hooves. Broad-Breasted also strongly
indicate power and pride. The use of alliteration continues throughout the
stanza.

- 5th Stanza - This stanza begins with a definitive But and the horses become
something different again, continuing to escape singular rational definition as
again we the word seemed. With their gigantic size they again appear
monstrous. And then we hear mysterious fire and smouldering bodies, for the
second and third time in the poem the horses are associated with fire, an
ungovernable force.

Andeesh Syed

- 6th Stanza - The diverse imagery continues with the use of a simile at Their
eyes as brilliant and as wide as night, the horses move from fire to something
as magnificent and large as night itself. Wide as night indicated horses as an
enormous but obscure force while in the next line they are defined as creul. In
this stanza, for the first and only time, the rhyme scheme falters with a halfrhyme wind and blind. The apocalyptic force is so strong here that it even
tends to break the poetic forms.

- 7th Stanza - Just as these thought begin to seize the poets imagination, they
suddenly fade. The repetition and exclamation in those words let the poet to
maintain the glorious and rapturous vision of the horses. The word pine
points out nostalgia while crystalline portrays the childs imagination and its
value, purity and beauty.

- The poem started with gentle amusement of how such ordinary animals could
once have had such power over him but by the end there is no amusement and
only the sad realisation that he has lost something that he can never get back.
The childish hour is gone. And with it the fear of wonder and the fire that lit his
imagination.