The Thought-Fox by Ted Hughes

Painting a picture requires skill and creative imagination. Many artists find inspiration in the natural world that surrounds them. They emulate nature and overwhelm us with fascinating images on canvas.

Painting a picture with words also requires skill and creative imagination. A writer or poet will use words to create mental images that come alive in our minds. Many artists, writers and poets convey sensations and emotions in their work.

Ted Hughes wrote the poem 'The Thought-Fox' emphasizing how important the imagination is when creating a picture with words.

The fact that he calls it a 'thought-fox' reveals that the fox is not real; it is imaginary.

The mind is as dark as a forest. There is a sense of mystery there. No-one knows what lies in the darkness ... The art of creating worthwhile results does not lie in skills alone. Even the most talented person has to put in a tremendous amount of effort to realize results. And for many writers and poets, a blank page can be rather intimidating. To get what is inside their head into the right words and onto paper is probably the most challenging of their efforts.

In the first stanza we find the poet is sitting alone in a room. It is midnight. All he hears is the ticking of the clock. The page in front of him is blank because he has not yet been inspired. He has not yet seen the 'fox' in the forest of his mind.

He looks out the window and sees no stars. He senses a mysterious living thing - 'something' that is present and near yet, hidden and unidentified. This living thing is the 'thought-fox' which metaphorically is the inspiration he needs to create his masterpiece.

In the first line of the poem he reveals his expectations. He uses alliteration to emphasize the mystery that will be solved:

I imagine this midnight moment's forest:

Something else is alive ...

He uses the imaginary fox to show how inspiration develops. Just like the fox emerges from the dark forest, inspiration (the fox) develops gradually and silently in the mind. There are so many impressions stored in the mind, almost as if hiding in camouflage in the sub-conscious, that when inspiration is needed it's like searching for a needle in the haystack.

The fox comes out of hiding slowly and cautiously. First, the dark nose touches a twig and then a leaf. After that two enquiring eyes can be seen. The delicacy of cautious movement shows the imaginary animal's uncertainty:

Two eyes serve a movement, that now

And again now, and now, and now

Sets neat prints into the snow ...

The rhythm of the poem at the start is slow and in harmony with a midnight mood. The rhythm becomes broken and slightly jerky as the fox hesitantly emerges from the forest. The rhythm changes once the fox crosses the clearings. His movements are swift and flowing. The poet uses run-on lines from line 11 to 17 to give the poem the same rhythm. His creativity and imagination is described in words like 'brilliantly' and 'concentratedly'. His inspiration is now taking form; this is seen in the fox that is

Coming about its own business

The 'sudden sharp hot stink of fox' impresses upon the reader the wild and instinctive way in which the writer, once inspired, writes the poem.

The poem ends with the repeated thought of a starless night. The alliteration emphasizes the stillness that is associated with the early morning hours of a new day. The clock ticking makes the reader aware that time has passed. And so a poem is written.

The window is starless still; the clock ticks,

The page is printed.