CAT AND MOUSE
On the sheep-cropped summit, under hot sun, *coined phrase
The mouse crouched, staring out the chance
It dared not take.
Time and a world
Too old to alter, the five mile prospect― * dual meaning;view/chance
Woods, villages, farms—hummed its heat-heavy * asyndetic listing
Stupor of life.
Whether to two
Feet or four, how are prayers contracted! * dual meaning; made
Whether in God’s eye or the eye of a cat. smaller/agreed
By Ted Hughes
In This poem a mouse hopes to make a break for freedom but does not as it
fears being eaten by a cat. The inference is that this is a predicament of life;
we are frozen into inaction b fear of the ‘what ifs’ in life. The line “It dared not
take” is end-stopped which conveys the notion that the mouse is not going to
change its mind; it has made a definite decision – there is not even a pause
for thought evidenced by a coma or a semi-colon. The poem is however a
comment on the cycle of life; it is the natural order of things. The cat is
predatory and the mouse is its prey. The analogy to humans and fate in the
form of a ‘God’ is that by existing in a god-fearing state of mind man can
become paralysed into inaction.
The setting is the countryside on a hill where the grass has been “cropped” by
the sheep, in blazing sunshine.
The speaker states how time and the world itself are too archaic to be
changed. There is a five mile distance between farms and woods that the
mouse has to cover. The asyndetic listing of “Woods, villages, farms”
On the sheep-cropped summit, under hot sun, *coined phrase
The mouse crouched, staring out the chance
It dared not take.
Time and a world
Too old to alter, the five mile prospect― * dual meaning;view/chance
Woods, villages, farms—hummed its heat-heavy * asyndetic listing
Stupor of life.
Whether to two
Feet or four, how are prayers contracted! * dual meaning; made
Whether in God’s eye or the eye of a cat. smaller/agreed
By Ted Hughes
In This poem a mouse hopes to make a break for freedom but does not as it
fears being eaten by a cat. The inference is that this is a predicament of life;
we are frozen into inaction b fear of the ‘what ifs’ in life. The line “It dared not
take” is end-stopped which conveys the notion that the mouse is not going to
change its mind; it has made a definite decision – there is not even a pause
for thought evidenced by a coma or a semi-colon. The poem is however a
comment on the cycle of life; it is the natural order of things. The cat is
predatory and the mouse is its prey. The analogy to humans and fate in the
form of a ‘God’ is that by existing in a god-fearing state of mind man can
become paralysed into inaction.
The setting is the countryside on a hill where the grass has been “cropped” by
the sheep, in blazing sunshine.
The speaker states how time and the world itself are too archaic to be
changed. There is a five mile distance between farms and woods that the
mouse has to cover. The asyndetic listing of “Woods, villages, farms”
