Hunting Wild Horses: Analyzing Patrick Lane’s Poem “Wild Horses”
Poetry in the work genre often examines relationships among humans, but many poems neglect to consider the impact of jobs on the environment and animals. Many of the jobs explored in work literature tend to focus on blue collar and white collar jobs, while few focus on outdoor jobs. The poem “Wild Horses” by Patrick Lane explores the consequences of hunters hunting wild horses. The poem takes place during winter in the meadows of the Canadian Rockies region. The poem’s speaker empathizes with the horses’ unfortunate deaths at the hands of the hunters. The overall tone of the poem is solemn with undertones of regret for the unnecessary deaths of the horses. In the poem, “Wild Horses,” Lane effectively employs poetic structure and style to establish a commentary that focuses on the relation between the predatory hunters and their prey - the horses.
In “Wild Horses,” the speaker begins with a scene of the horses with “raw legs heaving the hip-high snow” (4). The repetition of the ‘h’ sound through the words “horses”, “high”, “heaving” and …show more content…
The word “wild” could refer to the natural way in which these horses live compared to those in captivity, but also can refer to the “wild”, vicious and violent nature that natural animals can have towards other animals and humans. However, in this poem the expectation that the horse would be violent towards the humans is quickly removed because instead of the horses being violent, instead the humans are violent towards them. In this manner, the hunters act “wild” towards the innocent horses. Moreover, the horses that live freely in the wild, natural habitat have humanity within them, in the sense that these horses are just like humans with feelings and a want for life. However, this is taken away by those who should have been humane in the first
Poetry in the work genre often examines relationships among humans, but many poems neglect to consider the impact of jobs on the environment and animals. Many of the jobs explored in work literature tend to focus on blue collar and white collar jobs, while few focus on outdoor jobs. The poem “Wild Horses” by Patrick Lane explores the consequences of hunters hunting wild horses. The poem takes place during winter in the meadows of the Canadian Rockies region. The poem’s speaker empathizes with the horses’ unfortunate deaths at the hands of the hunters. The overall tone of the poem is solemn with undertones of regret for the unnecessary deaths of the horses. In the poem, “Wild Horses,” Lane effectively employs poetic structure and style to establish a commentary that focuses on the relation between the predatory hunters and their prey - the horses.
In “Wild Horses,” the speaker begins with a scene of the horses with “raw legs heaving the hip-high snow” (4). The repetition of the ‘h’ sound through the words “horses”, “high”, “heaving” and …show more content…
The word “wild” could refer to the natural way in which these horses live compared to those in captivity, but also can refer to the “wild”, vicious and violent nature that natural animals can have towards other animals and humans. However, in this poem the expectation that the horse would be violent towards the humans is quickly removed because instead of the horses being violent, instead the humans are violent towards them. In this manner, the hunters act “wild” towards the innocent horses. Moreover, the horses that live freely in the wild, natural habitat have humanity within them, in the sense that these horses are just like humans with feelings and a want for life. However, this is taken away by those who should have been humane in the first