Analysis: Horse by Edwin Muir

STRUCTURE: All stanzas are of equal length, they aren’t broken by the discontinuity of time. Movements to and from childhood are shown through enjambements and caesuras (“On the bare field – I wonder, why, just now, They seemed terrible”, “It fades! It fades!”). Only at these moments does punctuation intensely participate within verses, showing the confusion and resistance to a return to reality. The poet wants to remain in the dream. The rime scheme is standard throughout the poem, of the form AABB. Only the lost rimes “now”, “plough” and “wind” blind” interrupt the steady rhythm of the poem. Once again this is caused by an interruption in the time frame, these rimes having disappeared they show a voluntary attempt to ignore the barriers of time and return in the past. But “plough” no longer rimes with “now” and the author is irremediably stuck in the present. The “I” appears forcefully in the beginning showing the opinion and feelings of the author towards the horses but disappears after the second stanza only to reappear at the last. The poet puts the first person on the second level in order to give its full strength to the description of the horses. This presentation of a source of both fascination “Like magic power on the stony grange”  and fear “mute ecstatic monsters on the mould”  takes most of its strength from the capacity of the reader to link this to his vision of horses. The absence of the first person enables the reader to make this his own vision.   STANZA 1: “Those lumbering horses in the steady plough” The production of lumber went up during the industrial revolution. The use of this word at the start of the poem foreshadows the importance of this time in the poem. The horses appear as reliable creatures that do their amount of work: “lumbering”, and advance at a “steady” rate, they don’t fail. They also appear as ordinary animals in this first verse, just doing what they are forced to do. “On the bare field – I wonder, why, just now,” The word “now” is emphasised by its position at the end of the verse, revealing that time is an important subject in the poem. This poem is a reflection on a childhood memory of horses as is shown by the presence of the verb “wonder”. The poets vision of horses has changed over time and he attempts to understand and live again his past feelings. The evocation of a “bare field” reflects a useless work of the animals as in the end the land remains empty: “bare”. “They seemed terrible, so wild and strange”. This is what the poet remembers to be his impression of horses at the time. The use of diction indicated that these are the thoughts of a younger character as the words “terrible” and “strange” appear less sophisticated than the vocabulary of the two first verses “bare field”, “lumbering horses”. There is furthermore a contrast between the “wild” aspect described and the “steady” rhythm of their work. This emphasises the fact that the vision of the child is a distortion of the reality, or perhaps is it the contrary. The horses are representative of the power of nature, to the child but also to the adult. Indeed, the adult describes the multiple functions of horses: nature is needed everywhere, man tries to control it. “Like magic power on the stony grange”. We recognise here the childish tendance to look everywhere for things out of the ordinary: “magic power”. The “stony grange” is purely ordinary, and in this physical context, the child sees the horses as some sort of magical element, retaining a mystical element.   STANZA 2: “Perhaps some childish hour has come again” The return to past memories is made clear by the evocation of a “childish hour”. Time appears maleable, it can “come again”. However, this is not only a memory, the poet is adding his adult input to it. Indeed if it had been a clear memory it wouldn’t be “some childish hour” but a childish hour. The poet is simply attempting to return to a state that permits him to understand his vision of horses as a child. “When I watched fearful, through the blackening rain” Black rain, is rain that is darkened by particles of smoke that gather within the drops. The poet seems to refer to the industrial revolution as polluted air slowly starts the process of “blackening” the rain. This movement towards a darkened rain reinforces the impression of danger that the horses gave of, their image distorted by the black drops. The horses seem to exert not only fear but a certain interest as is underlined by the verb “watched”. “Their hooves like pistons in an ancient mill” Time is a key element of the poem and the author chooses to express this through references to many different time periods. The “ancient mill” speaks of older times, preceding even the childhood of the poet. The horses to have been useful throughout time, they are part or the machinery of the mill: the “pistons” without which the entire system would fail. The horses seem godly as they survive through all the different time periods. “Move up and down yet, seem as standing still.” This verse emphasises the difference between the reality and the vision of the boy . Once again a rhythmic movement of the horses is evoked, far from the vision of a “wild” animal, the horse is part of a man-made machinery. They has become themselves “pistons” in an “ancient mill”, they are no longer natures creatures but a product of the industrial revolution. This absence of movement is also representative of the fact nature cannot be controlled it is permanent and cannot be changed by man.   STANZA 3: “Their conquering hooves which trod the stubble ground” Horses are often used in combat by military men attempting to conquer lands. This metaphor transforms the horse into the one that vanquishes the land. However this image also evokes field work. This double image shows that horse is important in many different fields. “Were ritual that turned the field to brown” The field work is given a religious connotation through the idea of a “ritual”. Horses seem to pass through the ages, they have a magic about them and are now being linked to religion. “And their great hulks were seraphims of gold” The horses are powerful creatures, they are unwielding but they are also delicate and precious as they are made of “gold”. The horses are given a kind of mythological holiness being associated with the highest order of angels: “seraphims”. The horses appear as fascinating animals: both works of art and strong live creatures “Or mute ecstatic monsters on the mould” Man wants to make of horses, these beautiful free creatures, entirely identical beings all made on the same “mould”. They wish to industrialise nature. The word “monsters” shows the fear of machinery and this advancing industrial revolution. The verb “mute” evokes the helplessness of the poet who cannot fight this machine: ironically he is fighting it through this poem.   STANZA 4: “And oh the rapture, when, one furrow done” The noun “rapture” is extremely strong expressing ecstatic joy at a job well done. The furrow being a proof of the powerfulness of the horse. “They marched broad-breasted to the sinking sun” The horses appear as heroes from a tale, their bare strength and courage is exposed by their position: “broad-breasted”. The idea of “marching” also implies a determination that gives an interesting image of the horse when linked to the simple beauty of a setting sun. However, the word “sinking” lessens the victory of the day as though industrialisation may come ruin everything the next day … “the light flowed off their bossy sides in flakes” The horses seem to be illuminated specifically by the light, as though they produced it. This image gives them a holy appearance. “flakes” are delicate and therefore give a certain beauty and delicacy to the image: the horses are not all brute force (seraphims of gold). “the furrows rolled behind like struggling snakes” the work is successful.   STANZA 5: “But when at dusk with steaming nostrils home” “They came, they seemed gigantic in the gloam” The horses seem “gigantic” perhaps to the child that the poet once was. “And warm and glowing with mysterious fire” The reassuring words “warm” and “glowing” strike against the aura of danger that hides in the word “fire”. The horse is a source of mystery => nature difficult to understand. “That lit their smouldering bodies in the mire” The fire grows and is now inside the entire horse. The fire survives even on the “mire” a wet area of land. Fire is very important in this stanza: the flame of rage which grows in the next stanza starts to grow here. Progressive resistance to this attempt to curb nature to man’s will. The horses have the power of nature on their side: “fire”, earth, “wind”. STANZA 6: “Their eyes as brilliant and as wide as night” This very poetic stanza evokes the strength of the combat against the industrial revolution but also the hopelessness of it, nature isn’t strong enough. Humans don’t acknowledge the frailty of nature. The intelligence of the horses is brought for through the description of their “brilliant” “eyes”. “Gleamed with a cruel apocalyptic light,” The poet makes a religious reference to the end of the world. The word “cruel” underlines the uselessness of this apocalypse, man is destroying nature only for his own selfish purposes. The word “light” stands in contrast with its rhyme with “night” especially as an apocalypse must make a huge flash of light. “Their manes the leaping ire of the wind” The horse become a metaphor of the rage of nature “the wind”  towards the industrialisation. The horses are also used by the poet to convey these same feelings. The words chosen are extremely strong: “ire” expresses extreme rage which is emphasised by the full body movement of “leaping”. The entirety of the horses is transported by this rage. ” Lifted with rage invisible and blind.” This verse shows both the ignorance of man that hurts nature and is “blind” to its sufferance and the rage of nature that is “invisible” to man. There is an absence of communication between nature and man, the poet poses himself as speaker for nature’s interest. The force of the rage manages to “lift” the horses that had been described earlier as uncannily strong (great hulk), shows the strength of the emotions of both the poet and nature itself.   STANZA 7:

“Ah, now it fades! It fades! And I must pine” pine double meaning: sadness + nature. Repetition of “it fades” => we are in the moment when the memory disappears, we feel it slipping away as well: transition back to the “now”. The poet must return to the nostalgia of memory, he cannot hold on to it any longer, as he ages, he forgets. Pine perhaps for the lost memory and the lost power of nature as well. “pine” / “crystalline” is the only rhyme ending in “e” of the poem which emphasises it. The nostalgia of the author is made clear. “Again for the dread country crystalline,” “Where the blank field and the still-standing tree” Some of nature has resisted such as this lonesome tree “still-standing”. The field “bare” => “blank” nature is still the same it hasn’t changed even if the poet has. “Were bright and fearful presences to me.” One last evocation of past feelings about this place. The use of the past tense underlines the fact that the poet now has a different opinion. This place provokes mixed feelings as the word “bright” brings up jolly events whereas the word “fearful” (in reference perhaps to his previously mentioned fear of horses) has a negative connotation. The poet has changed and grown, now he sees this landscape with nostalgia.

Here is another line-by-line analysis of horses: http://www.academicde-stressor.com/line-by-line-analysis-of-horses-by-edwin-muir/

An interesting analysis of this poem: http://fr.slideshare.net/AndeeshSyed/horses-by-edwin-muir