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THE HORSE WHISPERER ANALYSIS
The next poem we look at is ‘The Horse Whisperer’ which is a really interesting poem.
So we start with the structure then and obviously you’ve got an enjambment with Caesura to
kind of build the rhythm throughout and keep us interested, so we actually have the idea
here of something being restless and actually draw us. And this kind of makes us stop in
the middle so we actually know that a change in time is coming, obviously stop in the middle,
maybe it’s reflecting the stop in the middle of what he’s doing or what he’s going
through for example.
The stanzas are very irregular and basically they’re irregular first of all it’s just
a reflection of what’s going on. It’s like a memory being cast. But then as you
look through it there is an argument to be had, or I think this one’s one, two, three,
four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and then it goes nine, eight, seven, six, four, so
it’s kind of like closing in, closing in, closing in and maybe that’s a reflection
on his usage. Maybe he’s less and less useful in this society that he was in or has less
and less of a place should I say. So that’s kind of an idea of him closing in or maybe
feeling hemmed in because ultimately he has to run away at the end of the poem.
It’s set over time, so we obviously have the memories of what’s happened in the beginning
and then we’ve got a very different memory at the end, so we’re in different places
from start to finish and very different states of mind. So that’s really interesting in
the structure as well, to show that change over time.
Meaning then. Well it’s a relationship with nature and a relationship with the horses,
etc., and how he used to do his job and how he used to control horses and it’s a dying
art or a lost art, so it’s really interesting to highlight. Talking about peoples’ reactions
to things and superstitions, so basically it’s like a witch hunt, but it’s a horrible
defamation of character. Basically when they don’t need him anymore, all of a sudden
he’s kind of kicked out of the village as some kind of strange, magical power now that
technology come in and you’ve got to ask yourself a lot about modern healing and medicine,
etc. It might get you thinking about that as well. So basically this is about peoples’
reactions to things. Now they’ve got something better coming in, they’re just straightaway
out with the old, which is maybe not really the right way to actually treat people.
So obviously you’ve got the idea of change there. There’s change several times. First
of all there’s the change in the horses, how he actually manages to calm them and then
he actually manages them to get them to do what he wants to do. Then there’s the change
in how they actually go about doing different things and what they need the horses for,
the change there as well. And then you’ve also got the change in his ideas and what
he’s actually doing with regards to now, what his place in society is, what he’s
actually doing and obviously how they treat him. And then like him, change going somewhere
else with people like himself moving on to countries far from where he originally started,
perhaps doing different jobs as well, or maybe the countries far from here; maybe he has
to go to poorer countries to actually ply the same trade, or places that can’t actually
afford the technological revolution, or haven’t yet had the technological revolution that’s
occurred.
And obviously one of the smaller meanings we have here is the revenge and then basically
the way he tries here to actually punish the people in the town for what they’ve done
to him.
So the images that we actually get. Obviously we get the images of which he uses to tame
the horses, that’s quite delicately put together and quite a unique concoction of
things. We’ve got the horses themselves, obviously that’s really interesting, here
they’re ‘shimmering muscles’, etc., it kind of gives you a beauty and strength
and then their snorting and their restlessness, it really brings them to life.
We get the real kind of feel of memory, ‘and still I miss them’ and we’ve got this
wistful feel and either these would be names or types of breed of horse that he’s actually
kind of remembering there and obviously this is kind of a warm memory for him and that’s
compounded by the short sentence of ‘still I miss them.
We’ve also got the language then. It really highlights the other. It’s got the break
there in they talking about who it was that actually treated him in the certain way and
it’s kind of very dismissive and not very popular, etc.
And then we’ve got the descriptions all the way through, explaining exactly what it
was that had happened to him and again, like the descriptions that are up here, especially
in the first stanza, they’re quite detailed and again in the second stanza. And all that’s
to really try to convey to the reader a real sense of where they are and a real sense of
what’s going on. Obviously to make the meanings and images stronger as well.
And then with the language you’ve got quite a sensory description of the smells. Here
you have the idea of the muscles shimmering and the horses snorting, so obviously that’s
sound. And then you’ve got smells here as well. So it’s quite a nice variation of
all the different sensory ideas.
And then the names of horses. I mean this is an interesting point that you could develop.
I don’t want to go far with it, but here the fact that he mentions these kinds of names
or breeds down here and he doesn’t mention any of the people, etc., it kind of shows
what was more important to him. That’s clear from the evident ‘the one I miss’ but
the fact that he names them, whereas the people are just referred to as ‘they’, then that
kind of hints at his final feel towards them.
Moving on then you’ve got the idea of what this actually promotes for us. Well it makes
us think about technology and how technology actually changes peoples’ jobs. I mean I
actually sit here making these videos and I wonder like sometime in the future maybe,
maybe 50 years, this is how education will be. There’ll be a load of recorded videos,
children will sit in a room, they have to just clock in, clock out, a horrible thought
really, a really soulless, horrible thought, maybe I should stop! But that’s the idea
there, technology changes so many things. I mean, look at so many industries where people
lose jobs just because machines make it more efficient, but then machines make it more
soulless as well, and if you don’t believe me go and try a sandwich produced in a factory
and go and try a sandwich that someone’s made themselves!
Effects as well. The depths that people will sink to. So here the people wanted the change
and maybe it’s become more cost-effective for them, so what they actually go and do
is they kind of scream this person out as a kind of witch and obviously the depths he
sinks to as well, looking for revenge, which isn’t really what ideally you would expect
someone to do, but you can understand in this case perhaps why this person did it.
And it gives us the idea as well of travel. He’s left here and he’s going away, so
he’s going somewhere else. I mean is he going somewhere else for money? Or is he going
somewhere else just to get away? So it gives us the idea of the economic migrants, I mean
we meet a lot of people in our day to day lives who we know who’ve come from abroad
or who travel abroad for different economic reasons and obviously in this case a little
bit of safety as well. It just kind of makes us understand a little bit more about their
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