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Unit 5: The Thought Fox by Ted Hughes
Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University

Unit 5: The Thought Fox by Ted Hughes Notes

CONTENTS
Objectives

Introduction
5.1 Introduction to Author

5.2 Hughes and Plath
5.3 The Thought Fox
5.4 Analysis
5.5 Critical Appreciation

5.6 Summary
5.7 Keywords
5.8 Review Questions

5.9 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this unit, you will be able to:

• Know about Ted Hughes;
• Discuss the themes and meanings of the Poem The Thought Fox;
• Make a critical analysis of the poem.

Introduction

The Thought Fox is written in first person, omniscient narration. You can see this by the way
the author is actually involved with the piece, taking a part within the tale told: ‘I imagine.....’
line 1

This poem has a dramatic monologue effect, and the poet’s use of hook lines and intrigue
encourages the reader to discover what is in the forest that he tells of. ‘Something else is alive
Besides the clocks loneliness. And this blank page where my fingers move.’
Here the poet has used enjambment for a pausing effect, and this is a controlled energy, with
a vibrant immediacy. His personification of the clock being lonely is hiding a double meaning,
the clock being his brain, cognitive thinking.
The Thought Fox is another of his 6 stanza poems each containing the four-line format. In the
2nd stanza the poet uses his poet licence.
‘Through the window I see no star.’
This gives the impression that there is only one star, however I think that the one star the he
is looking for is the one bright spark of an idea. There is then an air of mystery brought into
play with the poet’s use of a caesura at the end of ‘star’ and the next lines.

‘Something more near

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