Hyena Edwin Morgan

Background to the poem Morgan adopts the persona of a hyena Poem describes its environment, characteristics and lifestyle Gives a sense of the animal’s patient, menacing personality as it waits for its next meal Creates a menacing tone

Background -- Hyena Facts Nocturnal carnivores, found in Africa and Eurasia Generally perceived as scavengers The hyena in this poem is a spotted hyena, the largest species lives in sub-Saharan Africa. Spotted hyenas hunt their own prey rather than relying on scavenging alone. 2018/11/12

Form and structure Free verse / Dramatic Monologue First person allows hyena to communicate directly with reader (‘you’) Gives deliberately menacing unsettling tone Gives us a glimpse of the hyena’s character No regular metre or rhyme scheme Five stanzas each with a specific focus shapes poem 2018/11/12

Stanza Structure Hyena’s habitat Appearance and physique Hyena at night Hyena’s teeth Hyena’s hunting methods 2018/11/12

Themes and main ideas Theme Ideas The cruelty of nature The Hyena represents death The hyena’s dramatic monologue is trying to manipulate the reader’s impression of it (the animal) and nature 2018/11/12

Stanza 1 ~ Lines1- 4 Death is at the end for everyone The hyena is extremely hungry and thirsty Line 3 = short line: further emphasising how ravenous the animal is Repetition of ‘bush’ Details of the inhospitable environment Impressive / sinister that the hyena can live here I am waiting for you. I have been travelling all morning through the bush and not eaten. I am lying at the edge of the bush on a dusty path that leads from the burnt-out kraal. I am panting, it is midday, I found no water-hole. ‘Kraal’ = village of huts

Stanza 1 ~ Lines 7 - 9 Alliteration – repeated ‘f’ sounds like snarling More alliteration, this time ‘s’ – mirrors the threat offered by the hyena The hyena is confident in its abilities I am very fierce without food and although my eyes are screwed to slits against the sun you must believe I am prepared to spring.

Stanza 2 ~ Lines 10-13 Rhetorical question – challenges the reader Extended simile compares the tufty coat of the hyena to the landscape of Africa The hyena is an embodiment of Africa Hyena is connected to the environment What do you think of me? I have a rough coat like Africa. I am crafty with dark spots like the bush-tufted plains of Africa.

Stanza 2 ~ Lines 14-17 Simile – physical appearance linked to landscape Simile – explicit (clear) link between animal and continent Word choice – sprawling ‘suggests’ continent lying comfortably like an animal (Personification too!) Waters – Africa in the sea is like the hyena in the grass Repetition of ‘I’ - / vivid verbs – strong visual impression of animal Short, blunt statement – hyena’s idea of itself; sinister and threatening I sprawl as a shaggy bundle of gathered energy like Africa sprawling in its waters. I trot, I lope, I slaver, I am a ranger. I hunch my shoulders. I eat the dead.

Stanza 3 ~ Lines 18 - 22  Rhetorical question: toying with reader  Metaphor - image of the coldness of moonlight - veldt = African bush  ‘sing’ and earlier ‘song’: word choice -- the hyena’s laughter and howls  Associated with death / evil; Gothic monsters (Dracula / werewolves etc.)  List of man-made things that have been altered and made uncanny by the night (owls / moonlight) Do you like my song? When the moon pours hard and cold on the veldt I sing , and I am the slave of darkness . Over the stone walls and the mud walls and the ruined places and the owls, the moonlight falls.

Stanza 3 ~ Lines 23-25 Caesura (breaks in the line) Short statements that build tension  Climax: the hyena invites the reader to imagine themselves meeting it. Again, brings to mind Gothic horror (moon / howling). Terror / physical danger for reader I sniff a broken drum. I bristle. My pelt is silver. I howl my song to the moon – up it goes. Would you meet me there in the waste places ?

Stanza 4 ~ Lines 26 - 30 Comparison: majestic, regal lion vs lowly, creeping scavenging hyena. Here, the hyena is seen to win in the end!  Repetition of ‘golden’. Word choice connotes wealth / royalty. Ironic, as the lion is being eaten. The hyena is not impressed by his high status meal – would eat any carrion  Metaphor – teeth are numerous and messy It is said I am a good match for a dead lion . I put my muzzle at his golden flanks, and tear. He is my golden supper , but my tastes are easy. I have a crowd of fangs, and I use them.

Stanza 4 ~ Lines 31 - 33 Grotesque (strange and disturbing) imagery – toying with / taunting the reader  Brief, strong statement – hyena answers its own question : further unsettles the reader Oh and my tongue – do you like me when it comes lolling out over my jaw very long, and I am laughing? I am not laughing.

Stanza 4 ~ Lines 34 - 38 Lessens the threat of earlier lines only to build to a climax on the word ‘carrion’  ‘carrion’ word choice connotes death, decay and indignity. Horror / shock for reader  Frequent, short lines: sense of immediacy But I am not snarling either, only panting in the sun , showing you what I grip carrion with.

Stanza 5 ~ Lines 39 - 44 Series of alliterative sibilants (s sounds) emphasise the peril that lies in wait for the hyena’s victims  Repetition within a line – dark humour – the hyena will not participate in the fight, but will benefit whatever the outcome  Repeated pattern of line openings ‘for the’… a list of ways in which the hyena opportunistically obtains a meal at the expense of other animals I am waiting for the foot to slide, for the heart to seize, for the leaping sinews to go slack , for the fight to the death to be fought to the death, for a glazing eye and the rumour of blood.

Stanza 5 ~ Lines 45 - 46 The hyena belongs here the shadows are ‘my shadows’  Sense of inevitability (there is no escape) – the hyena will eat every animal if it waits long enough  Direct personal threat to the reader I am crouching in my dry shadows till you are ready for me.

Stanza ? ~ Lines 47 - 48 Final couplet: returns to opening idea (I am waiting for you). This is what the hyena is waiting to do. Extended metaphor: the hyena is the embodiment of the death that awaits every living thing. Sinister ending to the poem – gives the reader no consolation (nothing to feel good about) My place is to pick you clean and leave your bones to the wind.