"The Jaguar" is a 1957 poem by Ted Hughes first published in his collection The Hawk in the Rain. The poem's speaker walks through a zoo in which most of the animals seem bored, tired, and defeated, all their wildness and vivacity smothered by their confinement. The speaker finds one animal, however, that hasn't had its spirit broken by its captivity: a jaguar, which seems to dominate its environment with its ferociousness and to embody "freedom" itself. On one level, the poem suggests that nature possesses primal, instinctive energy that can't be fully tamed. The speaker also likens the jaguar to an imprisoned "visionary" whose mind remains free from constraint, and the poem can thus be read as a metaphorical celebration of the human imagination and/or those who resist confinement and captivity.
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The Full Text of “The Jaguar”
The Full Text of “The Jaguar”
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“The Jaguar” Summary
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“The Jaguar” Themes
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Captivity vs. Freedom
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-20
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The Power of the Imagination
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 9-20
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Jaguar”
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Lines 1-3
The apes yawn ...
... with the nut. -
Lines 4-6
Fatigued with indolence, ...
... Is a fossil. -
Lines 6-8
Cage after cage ...
... a nursery wall. -
Lines 9-13
But who runs ...
... short fierce fuse. -
Lines 13-15
Not in boredom ...
... the ear — -
Lines 16-17
He spins from ...
... visionary his cell: -
Lines 18-20
His stride is ...
... the horizons come.
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“The Jaguar” Symbols
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The Jaguar
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 9-20
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“The Jaguar” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 2: “strut”
- Line 3: “tarts,” “stroller”
- Line 5: “still,” “sun,” “constrictor’s coil”
- Line 6: “Cage,” “cage,” “seems”
- Line 7: “Stinks,” “sleepers,” “straw”
- Line 9: “runs,” “rest,” “arrives”
- Line 10: “cage,” “crowd,” “stands,” “stares”
- Line 12: “darkness,” “drills”
- Line 13: “fierce fuse,” “boredom”
- Line 14: “be blind”
- Line 15: “By,” “bang,” “blood,” “brain”
- Line 20: “cage,” “come”
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Anthropomorphism
Where anthropomorphism appears in the poem:- Lines 1-5
- Lines 11-20
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Assonance
Where assonance appears in the poem:- Line 1: “yawn,” “adore”
- Line 4: “tiger,” “lion”
- Line 6: “seems”
- Line 7: “ sleepers,” “breathing”
- Line 9: “arrives”
- Line 10: “mesmerized”
- Line 14: “eye satisfied,” “blind,” “fire”
- Line 19: “under,” “thrust”
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Asyndeton
Where asyndeton appears in the poem:- Lines 10-10: “stands, stares, / mesmerized,”
- Lines 14-15: “The eye satisfied to be blind in fire, / By the bang of blood in the brain deaf the ear —”
- Lines 19-20: “The world rolls under the long thrust of his heel, / Over the cage floor the horizons come.”
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Caesura
Where caesura appears in the poem:- Line 2: “fire, or”
- Line 4: “indolence, tiger”
- Line 5: “sun. The”
- Line 6: “fossil. Cage,” “empty, or”
- Line 10: “stands, stares, mesmerized,”
- Line 11: “dream, at”
- Line 13: “fuse. Not”
- Line 16: “bars, but”
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Consonance
Where consonance appears in the poem:- Line 2: “strut”
- Line 3: “tarts to attract,” “stroller,” “nut”
- Line 4: “indolence,” “and lion”
- Line 5: “still,” “sun,” “boa-constrictor’s coil”
- Line 6: “Cage after cage,” “empty”
- Line 7: “Stinks of sleepers,” “straw”
- Line 9: “runs,” “rest,” “arrives”
- Line 10: “cage,” “crowd,” “stands, stares,”
- Line 11: “jaguar,” “enraged”
- Line 12: “darkness,” “drills”
- Line 13: “fierce fuse”
- Line 14: “be blind”
- Line 15: “By,” “bang,” “blood,” “brain”
- Line 16: “bars”
- Line 18: “stride,” “wildernesses”
- Line 19: “world rolls,” “long,” “heel”
- Line 20: “cage,” “floor,” “come”
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End-Stopped Line
Where end-stopped line appears in the poem:- Line 1: “sun.”
- Line 3: “nut.”
- Line 7: “straw.”
- Line 8: “wall.”
- Line 10: “mesmerized,”
- Line 13: “boredom —”
- Line 14: “fire,”
- Line 15: “ear —”
- Line 17: “cell:”
- Line 18: “freedom:”
- Line 19: “heel,”
- Line 20: “come.”
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Enjambment
Where enjambment appears in the poem:- Lines 2-3: “strut / Like”
- Lines 4-5: “lion / Lie”
- Lines 5-6: “coil / Is”
- Lines 6-7: “or / Stinks”
- Lines 9-10: “arrives / At”
- Lines 11-12: “enraged / Through”
- Lines 12-13: “eyes / On”
- Lines 16-17: “him / More”
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Metaphor
Where metaphor appears in the poem:- Lines 5-6: “ The boa-constrictor’s coil / Is a fossil.”
- Lines 11-13: “at a jaguar hurrying enraged / Through prison darkness after the drills of his eyes / On a short fierce fuse.”
- Lines 14-15: “The eye satisfied to be blind in fire, / By the bang of blood in the brain deaf the ear —”
- Line 18: “His stride is wildernesses of freedom:”
- Lines 19-20: “The world rolls under the long thrust of his heel, / Over the cage floor the horizons come.”
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Repetition
Where repetition appears in the poem:- Line 1: “The apes yawn”
- Line 2: “The parrots shriek”
- Line 6: “Cage after cage”
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Simile
Where simile appears in the poem:- Lines 2-3: “The parrots shriek as if they were on fire, or strut / Like cheap tarts to attract the stroller with the nut.”
- Lines 4-5: “Fatigued with indolence, tiger and lion / Lie still as the sun.”
- Lines 10-11: “the crowd stands, stares, mesmerized, / As a child at a dream,”
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Chiasmus
Where chiasmus appears in the poem:- Lines 19-20: “The world rolls under the long thrust of his heel, / Over the cage floor the horizons come.”
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“The Jaguar” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Strut
- Cheap tarts
- Stroller
- Indolence
- Boa-constrictor
- Nursery
- Mesmerized
- Fuse
- Visionary
- Stride
- Wildernesses
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(Location in poem: Lines 2-3: “or strut / Like cheap tarts”)
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Jaguar”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“The Jaguar” Speaker
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“The Jaguar” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Jaguar”
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More “The Jaguar” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poem Aloud — Listen to Hughes himself reading the poem out loud.
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Ted Hughes's Craft — Read an interview in which the poet talks about his relationship with poetry.
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Hughes's Life and Work — Watch a BBC documentary about Hughes.
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Ted Hughes's Life and Work — Visit the Poetry Foundation to read a brief biography of Hughes and find more of his poetry.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Ted Hughes
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