Before the Next Song and other Poems Analysis

Hunter’s jogging song

A Hunter’s Jogging Song is a concrete musical verse that captures the imaginations of a hunter. The poet recreates a terrifying encounter of a hunter and a wounded feline animal. The battle between animals and humans is perpetual as humans rely on animals for food. It is a survival of the fittest. Humans are aware of the precarious situation which they always find themselves in, thus the poet brings out the fears of the hunters as they undertake their expedition.

An encounter with a wounded animal is one of the hunter’s nightmares. The intensity of the animal’s ferocity is deadly. Although the animal is “drooping with languor” as a result of lethal injuries, its vengeance is dreadful. The imminence of the animal’s demise is suggested by the metaphor of the “waning red rays” and “the sinking sun”. These figures of speech point to the end of life.

Through the use of indentation, the poet creates a concrete visual image of a hunter as he jogs “towards the bogs”. The ‘left-right left-right’ pattern of the feet is graphically presented by the arrangement of the stanzas that are placed to the left and to the right alternatively. The pattern also imitates the spoor marks of an animal as it walks on the ground. This produces a regular rhythm which in turn implies continuity thus suggesting that hunting is a regular exercise. Hunting as a continuous activity is suggested by rhyme on the words “claws”, “paws”, “boulder”, “danger”and “other”. The repetition of similar sounds echoes the endless hunting enterprise carried out as a means of sourcing food.

The similes employed establish the persona as an expert hunter. The “arrows in a quiver” conjure up an image of a person carrying several arrows while on the hunt whereas the alliteration on the words “printing pretty patterns” introduces musical effects. It suggests the joys of the hunter upon seeing marks of spoor on the ground. Spoor marks are a source of motivation to the hunter since he knows that eventually he will kill the animal, thus ensuring the survival of his family. The similes underscore the concept of danger. The “arrows” and “needles” create a tactile image of pain as both objects can prickle and cause harm. This suggests that the mind of the hunter is preoccupied with the thoughts of killing.

In encounters involving hunters and animals, the hunter almost always emerges as a victor albeit the dangers associated with the activity. The animal is portrayed as the victim. This is indicated by the poet’s semantic field which suggests that the animal has little strength as compared with the hunter. The words “little”, “brittle” and “fickle” have been aptly chosen not only for their musical effects emanating from their rhyming qualities but also for their semantic connotations. “Little” implies that the animal is of insignificant stature in comparison with the hunter whereas the word “brittle”, connotes fragility of he animal. The word “frickle” suggests that the strength of the animal eventually ebbs away after the “tearing and shearing and breaking of bone”

The fifth stanza is the climax of the poem. This is indicated primarily by its relatively huge size. Here, the hunter and the hunted engage in a life and death battle. The animal fights to get the prize of another chance in the wild and the hunter’s prize is a meal for the family. The persona brings out the fears hunters experience during their endeavours. Through exclamatory expressions, the frightening moments of the hunter are captured. The “frightening patterns!” and “danger!” symbolised by “a skull” and “two bones crossing” indicate that hunters go thorough blood-curdling episodes in their quest to acquire food. During the fights, animals struggle to survive hence they whip “through the air”. Unfortunately, their strength cannot match with that of humans, they eventually succumb to death. Their battle for survival and their demise is symbolised by the “tearing” and “breaking of bone”. The claws are presented as “redder than the sun” to indicate the blood that oozes either from the animal as the hunter inflicts fatal injuries or from the hunter as a result of the attack by the animal.