Poetry Analysis: Ted Hughes' "The Jaguar"

The apes yawn and adore their fleas in the sun.

The parrots shriek as if they were on fire, or strut
Like cheap tarts to attract the stroller with the
nut.
Fatigued with indolence, tiger and lion
Lie still as the sun.
In this first stanza we are shown a group of very different animals. The
apes are lounging around, the parrots are squawking, trying to get nuts
from passers-by, and the lion and tiger are tired from being lazy. These are
not animals that are naturally found together...parrots, lions, and tigers all
come from different continents. And none of these habitats have
"strollers." These facts let us know that the animals are probably part of
some kind of zoo.
The boa-constrictors coil
Is a fossil. Cage after cage seems empty, or
Stinks of sleepers from the breathing straw.
It might be painted on a nursery wall
There is not a lot of "life" going on here (about as much as a painting)...the
critters are lethargic and most seem to be sleeping and the snake is so still
it might as well be dead stone! The only way you know they are alive is
because the place has a stink to it.
But who runs like the rest past these arrives
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At a cage where the crowd stands, stares, mesmerized,

As a child at a dream, at a jaguar hurrying enraged
Through prison darkness after the drills of his eyes On a short fierce fuse.
People aren't much interested in seeing these sluggy animals, either. They
hurry past the cages indifferently. There is a crowd, though, around the
jaguar enclosure. The jaguar is more interesting to watch because it is
showing signs of its nature: it paces, angrily, "rebelling" against the
cage. People are mesmerized by its vitality.
Not in boredom
The eye satisfied to be blind in fire,
By the bang of blood in the brain deaf the ear
He spins from the bars, but theres no cage to him More than to the
visionary his cell:
Despite the fact that the jaguar is physically in a cage, it is not in one
mentally or "spiritually." It's nature cannot be held in check. The bars stop
him, but they do not "cage" his spirt. The wildness is in his blood. He is no
more tamed by the cage than a great human thinker's mind would be in jail.
His stride is wildernesses of freedom:
The world rolls under the long thrust of his heel.
Over the cage floor the horizons come.
His walk is the essence of wildness and freedom. The world is compelled
by his powerful paws and the inner freedom of the Jaguar is not diluted.

So what does it mean? You would have to decide for yourself. It might be
about the stoic nature of the jaguar, or about the spirit-breaking that goes
on in zoos. It might be about humanity's interest in observing the wild
(something largely driven out of ourselves) or about never giving up or
giving in. Or maybe it is about all of these things. That's the beauty of
poetry!

Poetry Analysis: Ted Hughes' "The Jaguar"

As in all of Hughes's animal-poems, in Jaguar too, he deals with the raw and
savage power of the beasts--the hawk, the crow and the wolf. He himself associates
these images of power to the tropes of the magical shaman; poetry, in his words, is
a transformative mask. Though in most of his animal poems, Hughes's persona is
located within the animal-self, in this poem, it seems to be an external observer,
watching the Jaguar's movement from the imprisonment into a human world of
civilization to its veritable liberation in a world of absolute power and energy, the
ethico-political import of which remains equivocal, however.
In his typically anti-Romantic declination of an innocent animal world, Hughes
sees the parrots as cheap tarts--a stark counter-anthropomorphism that sheds light
on his fallen world of animals. The predominant setting of the poem seems to be a
cage where the human will of mastery over the animal world is exhibitted. The
animals in the cages are sterile, even the lion and the tiger are as still as the sun.
The impotent animals in the cages look like painted prisons where an illusory
image is at work. But the jaguar is introduced in the 3rd stanza as a counterpoint-a ball of fire, commanding massive spectatorial attention. the analogy between the
gazing zoo-visitor and a child is reductive. In the fourth stanza, Hughes pays a
Hughesian homage to the physicality of the jaguar's strength. it is seen as a
Messiah, a leader, a visionary inspirer. As the opening line of the final stanza
confirms, the jaguar is also seen as a poetic prototype--a visionary who makes the
prison house his own cell of creativity, finding the much needed isolation in it. He
destroys the encapsulation of the cage by making a metaphor out of it. The jaguar's
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cage is just a symbolic one where massive expanses of time and space merge and
the cage-floor gets overshadowed by the infinity of the horizon.
The Jaguar thus shows an animal resistance to the human trope of mastery but
Hughes, like a true visionary is able to see the underlying paradox of this
subversively progressive move as the sheer savagery of the emancipatory power is
laced with some irony, nevertheless.

Poetry Analysis: Ted Hughes' "The Jaguar"

Introduction
Ted Hughes' "The Jaguar" is a tribute to the majesty of the animal. The eminence
of the jaguar is contrasted against the insignificance of other animals. The apes
yawn at their humdrum existence. Their only point of adoration is aimed at the
fleas that inhabit or surround them them. The parrots have to screech to invite
attention to themselves, as though one gets the impression that they are on fire.
These shrieks are particularly aimed at the stroller with nuts. The tiger and lion
appear lethargic and are overcome with lassitude. Through the mechanical
routine of the animals' life, the poet seems to make a statement on the current
mechanized human condition where people relegate the true meaning of life to
basic biological functions.

Explication
The Boa constrictor is a large, heavy-bodied species of snake. Its color pattern is
highly variable yet distinctive. It is one of its kind. Yet, its static nature gives the
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impression of it being a fossil, an archeological remnant. It appears as though it

has no utility value. Though the animals are supposed to be a source of
amusement in the zoo, they fail to make their presence felt. Cage after cage
appears to be empty as all the animals lie in indolence. The only evidence of
their being alive seems to be the stink emanating from the cages. The picture of
the animals in sluggishness appear as static as a painting on a nursery wall.
People, however, do not hold any fascination for these sort of animals. They just
rush past these animals like the rest. The cage that holds the onlookers spellbound is the cage of the Jaguar. The jaguar holds the crowd mesmerized like a
child in a trance. The atmosphere in the cell seems to pale into darkness as
compared to the fierce-gleam in the jaguar's eye.
This temporary darkening of his cell is not owing to boredom on part of the
onlooker. People prefer to be blinded by the splendor of this fire. The wildness in
the tigers blood is bang on to the human brain. The grandiose-roar falls on deaf
ears. As he traverses distances within the cage, there are no bars for him, for
nothing can imprison his magnificent spirit. The jaguar is beyond cages and
taming. It is just as : the imprisoning of a visionary cannot incarcerate his
profound thoughts, or freedom of expression. His instinctive attitude and wildness
of spirit is implicit in each stride of his. The world is encompassed in the stride of
his paw as he enamours humanity with his innate elegance. He does not have to
look outside the cage to look beyond the horizon. Rather, the cage floor traces
horizons over it, owing to the immense presence of the tiger.
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Poetry Analysis: Ted Hughes' "The Jaguar"

Edward James Ted Hughes (1930 -1998) was an English poet and writer of
children's fiction. He was a well-known and highly respected figure in the world of
poetry. His popularity may have waned but he still a highly respected poet.
What is important for Hughes in his poem The Jaguar is the way that the Jaguar is
different from the other animals. The rest of the animals that he passes are either
bored, or asleep or prostituting themselves. The animals have all been caged and
for the most part are institutionalized.
The thing that made them beautiful and interesting creatures in the wild is no
longer there. They have no spirit; the metaphor that Hughes uses for the boaconstrictor, Is a fossil, seems apt. They are stone replica of the beast they used
to be. In that sense the zoo is more like a museum than a zoo. It so lifeless Hughes
suggests that it: It might be painted on a nursery wall.
The exception is the Jaguar; in his prose you can feel Hughes' admiration of the
creature. He is not the only one to feel this. In the poem there is crowd gathered
around the cage that houses the Jaguar.
The Jaguar Hughes likens to a visionary in his cell. A sort of political prisoner who
has been locked up, but refuses to give up his vision or accept the restrictions put
on him (or her) by the cage.
It feels just as well too, because after the sadness and degradation of the other
cages the reader is feeling somewhat down in the mouth. There is a feeling of
hopelessness in this zoo. It is almost as if the zoo is to represent a prison or
concentration camp or indeed a microcosm for society itself.
The Jaguar sets us free from this bleak view. If anything the Jaguar shows us that
the bars are only in your head. If you choose not to accept the limitations then the
spirit is still wild and free (and angry).
The Jaguar then is something for humans to aspire to, rather than accept the world
as it is. Though it is clear that Hughes has a form of elitism in mind; not everyone
is a Jaguar, the other animals represent for him the majority of people. Even so, it

is an inspiring poem. One that gives hope however desperate a situation a person
might find themselves in.
Hughes poem takes us from the animals that broken by their captivity and then on
to the Jaguar who does not even recognise he is held in a cage. While Hughes
admits this is a form of blindness, he admires the fire and passion behind this
attitude.

English Tutor Manchester and Bolton: Ted Hughes

Jaguar analysis:Wild at heart!
by Janet Lewison
Jaguar Ted Hughes commentary, Ted Hughes The Jaguar analysis. Jaguar Ted Hughes Analysis
2 Comments

The apes yawn and adore their fleas in the sun.

The parrots shriek as if they were on fire, or strut
Like cheap tarts to attract the stroller with the nut.
Fatigued with indolence, tiger and lion
Lie still as the sun. The boa-constrictors coil
Is a fossil. Cage after cage seems empty, or
Stinks of sleepers from the breathing straw.
It might be painted on a nursery wall.
But who runs like the rest past these arrives
At a cage where the crowd stands, stares, mesmerized,
As a child at a dream, at a jaguar hurrying enraged
Through prison darkness after the drills of his eyes
On a short fierce fuse. Not in boredom
The eye satisfied to be blind in fire,
By the bang of blood in the brain deaf the ear
He spins from the bars, but theres no cage to him

More than to the visionary his cell:

His stride is wildernesses of freedom:
The world rolls under the long thrust of his heel.
Over the cage floor the horizons come.

Overview.
Jaguars are a threatened species on this planet. In the wild they are on the verge of extinction:
Not an understatement to own that we are by far, the most dangerous predators on earth.
Here Ted Hughes takes the reader to visit a zoo where animals seem to have resigned themselves
to their caged safety each adopting their own preferred type of behaviour in order to cope with
the sedentary limitations of their existence.
Some big cats like the lions and tigers practice indifference when faced by the gawping eyes of
visitors, choosing to embrace their caged predicament with endless sleep.
Gawping crowds of stream past the animals, spectating on the animals imprisonment, upon the
spectacle that is the creatures daily existence.
The jaguar however is different.
His free spirit remains, rendering his watchers, mesmerized. He seems to exist in a different
mental dimension.
The irony of this poem is that the jaguar refuses to accept the limitations of his caged freedom.
Like a messiah figure, he seems visionary and spontaneous. All other animals seem inanimate in
comparison .
They have been degraded by their caged existence.
Mentally he is elsewhere, outside, roaming his natural habitat, moving powerfully and with
deadly intent The poem celebrates this separation, this defiance through a language that conveys
his imaginative agility, even when faced by the all too real boundaries of his cage.
This is one of my favorite poems by Hughes as it captures the unbowed grandeur of the jaguar,
giving representation to his courage and creative imagination as he refuses to be cowed by
mans attempts to domesticate his wild nature.
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Jaguar a call for liberty, for bravery in the face of any form of oppression, where an individual
refuses to compromise their integrity to suit those in power.
The last line of the poem resonates with me deeply about the emotive and imaginative value of
liberty: Over the caged floor, horizons come.

Stanza One.
The apes yawn and adore their fleas in the sun.
The parrots shriek as if they were on fire, or strut
Like cheap tarts to attract the stroller with the nut.
Fatigued with indolence, tiger and lion
Boredom dominates the lives of the animals described in the opening stanza. Even the normally
irritating fleas have become a matter of affectionate interest to the apes as their lives are so dull,
that even fleas seem deserving of tenderness.
The parrots are so stressed mentally by their unnatural, demeaning existence that they alternate
their behaviour, feeling as if they are on fire because perhaps chained; seeking attention in
increasingly desperate and pitiful ways. all for a mere nut probably bough by the visitor as
they enter in to the zoo where wild life has become com modified and freedom irrevocably
compromised.
The heavy irony of the first stanzas last line, underlines the tiredness of having nothing to do.
Once energetic and bold wild creatures have now become reduced unnatural replicas/ mere
ciphers of their original states.
Stanza two
Lie still as the sun. The boa-constrictors coil
Is a fossil. Cage after cage seems empty, or
Stinks of sleepers from the breathing straw.
It might be painted on a nursery wall.
The zoo seems a ghost town.

Visitors can hardly tell if the cages are occupied or not. The immobility of the lions and tigers is
emphasized by the way the enjambment spills over indolently into the second stanza. One day is
very much like another. Wild creatures Lives have become reduced to repetition and monotony.
This is not pleasure, it is mental and physical inanimacy. Even the boa constrictor looks deadlong dead, resembling a fossil. Such is the inactivity of the resigned incarcerated animals.The
word empty whilst literally untrue, conveys the irony of dead or empty lives. The spirits of
the wild animals have been squashed by their imprisonment.
We join with the visitors in the overriding sensory impression of smell as we encounter the brash
pronouncement Stinks of sleepers. They are even inseparable or undifferentiated from their
straw.
Their lack of animacy or authenticity is emphasizes by the tentative provisionality of
their comparison to a nursery wall. Once again, the wildness of the animals on show, has
been reduced to a mere cameo, a nursery picture, never noted for their ferocity or naturalness.
Despair seems coupled with ironic complacency.
BUT then the poem dramatically shifts and we encounter(with the desultory visitors) the
JAGUAR!
Stanza Three
But who runs like the rest past these arrives
At a cage where the crowd stands, stares, mesmerized,
As a child at a dream, at a jaguar hurrying enraged
Through prison darkness after the drills of his eyes
Until we reach this stanza (figuratively this cage),the zoo has been a place of silence and
lethargy. Sounds have been leisurely and indolent aside from the desperate attention seeking
strut of the poor parrots.
Hughes deliberately disorientates the reader by the quizzical who that deliberately elides the
spectator with the (new) spectacle; namely the jaguar. The dismissal of these animals reveals
how incarceration has reduced the snakes, the lions and tigers to beings regarded as a mere
group of uninteresting objects, deprived of their natural vitality and therefore unjustly now

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dismissed. Humans crave sensations and excitement and only the untamed, proud and frustrated
jaguar can give the visitors what they believe they have bought of paid for.
Hughes is revealing the disturbing and cruel commodification of nature for human gratification.
This stanza reveals the extreme power(and pathos) of an animal who refuses to be degraded into
a dull spectacle. Here we meet the jaguar who is enraged by his situation and who stares out of
his confinement with drills for eyes. The eyes of this defiant creature seem penetrating and
unbroken. They stare at the human from a non-human perspective, a perspective that unsettles
and mesmerizes the watchers. The power is thus still curiously with the wild animal, rather than
taken away from him by those who own the zoo.
There is a strong element of trance in this stanza as the world becomes dreamlike and
intensely raw. Such an encounter is extraordinary as it is so different from the tired
domesticity/resignation of the other creatures seen at the zoo.
The rage of the jaguar is electrifying and hypnotizes the watchers who held by his wild, natural
energy, become as one crowd as they stare at his movements.
Stanza Four
On a short fierce fuse. Not in boredom
The eye satisfied to be blind in fire,
By the bang of blood in the brain deaf the ear
He spins from the bars, but theres no cage to him
All the indolence and silence of the animals in the previous stanzas is swept away by the
aliveness of the jaguar :On a short fuse. This animal is explosive with passion.No compromised
quietude for him.
Hughes is quick to allay any fears that this behaviour is just another response to the frustrations
of being caged up in a prison/zoo. So we immediately read the denial, Not in boredom. We then
find an intensely compressed reading of the jaguars behavior and soul
The passion of the jaguar differentiates it from the other creatures trapped at the zoo. It has no
fear of extremity. The eye satisfied to be blind in fire. There is a sort of baptismal light that
makes the jaguar so alive, that its feeling ironically render him blind too.

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The jaguar is so consumed by his passion for his natural habitat and self that he is purposefully
blind to his literal situation. Likewise the sheer volume of blood racing to his head as he
imagines freedom and a wild elsewhere, makes him deaf to his predicament too.
Mental liberation involves a switching off of the senses in order to preserve the illusion of an
outside beyond where he is not trapped behind bars, no matter how safe they may be.
Ironically even though he spins away from the bars, he seems to ignore their existence. Hughes
is endowing the jaguar with a wild dignity and powerful sense of autonomy. It is the humans who
seem a mere, undifferentiated crowd all bent on sameness and lumped together as a group
rather than owning any personal response.
It is as if the poet is associating the jaguar with a powerful creativity, an intensely realized
agency that refuses to be suppressed by the ostensibly civilizing environment of a zoo.
Stanza Five.
More than to the visionary his cell:
His stride is wildernesses of freedom:
The world rolls under the long thrust of his heel.
Over the cage floor the horizons come
The use of enjambment between the fourth and fifth stanzas once again lends emphasis to the
fluid, imagined freedom and potency of the jaguars mental and physical movement .
The poet personifies the jaguar as a visionary whose cell has no control over his thinking.
This establishes the jaguar as exceptional and unique; a seer whose confinement only intensifies
the courageous visions of his mental life.
It is significant that in seeking a metaphorical comparison between the jaguar and the world, the
poet(whom we might believe is a visionary) also identifies the jaguar with such a quality or
identity.
The grandeur of the jaguars liberating stride that is compared to a wilderness of freedom, is
suggestive of awe.We are in the presence of some passionate visionary, an exceptional being
who eclipses the world around him, reducing it to banality through contrast.

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If there is even something god like or messianic about the jaguar, then these ideas
are extended further through the reference to his movement that rolls under the long thrust
of his heel. The expansiveness of the world is something that can be conquered by the
jaguars movement.
Little wonder that the poem ends on a mystical note, where the jaguars untarnished naturalness
has the capacity to conquer the limitations of his confinement, and make the horizons come. In
the mind of the jaguar, the reality of the here and now has no power to stop him dreaming
physically and mentally-even spiritually of an elsewhere, a free and natural there where the
jaguar can be purely and utterly himself.
A terrific poem that shows the poets profound admiration for the natural poetry of the jaguar
and his acknowledgement of its visionary, creative and enduring potency.

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