The Fox in The National Museum of Wa

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  • Created by: sophia.l@
  • Created on: 04-05-16 18:17
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  • The Fox in the National Museum of Wales
    • Title: 'The Fox in the National Museum of Wales'
      • Definite pronoun 'The' establishes that this is a specific fox in a specific place
        • Despite the definite pronoun for 'The Fox', it should be noted that there is nothing special about this fox, it remains un-named and so could really be any fox
      • It's very literal, no surprises in store here
        • The only assumption one may make is that 'The Fox' is an exhibit, it seems to be alive in the poem though whether he is or isn't an exhibit remains somewhat ambiguous
        • Specific place, maybe worth noting
    • 'He scans the frames but doesn't stop/    this fox who has come to the museum today'
      • FIRST & SECOND LINE, INCLUDED BOTH AS FEEL THE FIRST NEEDS THE SECOND FOR CLARITY
      • 'scans the frames'
        • 'scanning' is a very human action, not fox-like at all. Indeed, it is only in the next time that it becomes totally clear this is a fox. The effect of giving a fox human behaviors is, to an extent, comical.
      • 'frames' and 'fox'
        • Alliterative effect, gives a rhythmic sense. Also FRICATIVE sounds stress these words for rhythmic effect.
      • 'Fox' and 'Stop'
        • Assonance also has a half-rhyme, rhythmic effect
    • The Fox is in the fossils and the folios, I cry/ The fox is in the Photography and the Folk studies department......../ The fox is in the flock/ The fox is in the flock.
      • Again FRICATIVE and repetition of 'Fo' sound builds rhythm like a tongue twister. It makes the stanza fast paced
        • Fast pace shows rapid movement from department to department, from age to age
          • Builds to a crescendo
            • Ends in repetition  of 'The fox is in the flock'
              • What is 'the flock'? The exhibits maybe? The effect is chaotic implying danger and a desperate cry for help
            • What is 'the flock'? The exhibits maybe? The effect is chaotic implying danger and a desperate cry for help
      • Ends in repetition  of 'The fox is in the flock'
      • 'Under the skeleton of a whale he skedaddles/ the whalebone silver as bubble wrap'
        • alliteration again, cementing the phonic effect of this poem: 'skeleton' and 'skedaddles'
          • Side note, this is actually quite cute and charming imagery
        • 'whalebone silver as bubblewrap'
          • Contrast of  the three materials. Whalebone: strong and sturdy, ancient. Silver: Precious also ancient and pure.  Bubblewrap: modern, flimsy and pop-able. All grouped together perhaps suggests how insignificant the whale is for the fox? Why would he care anyway?- He's a fox Theme of TIME
      • 'greyblue the brush on him, this one who has seen so much/ blood on the bristles of his mouth,/ and on his suit of iron filings the air fans like silk'
        • 'seen so much,/ blood'
          • THEME OF TIME 'seen so much', he's a fox. He doesn't care about what he's seen anyway. It's not scarring because he doesn't care. One infers this is a humorous reference to all he's passed in the museum.
          • Possibly one could let the 'much' and 'blood' become part of the same clause. It is only really the lines of poetry that separate these words. Blood perhaps suggests war's he's seen in the museum the irony is, again, that he does not care
        • 'blood on the bristles of his mouth'
          • Plosive phonics, again, highlight the importance of sounds in this poems.
            • Sounds aggressive, fits with what the poem is saying about war and battle
        • 'on his suit of iron filings the air fans like silk'
          • FRICATIVE, SOUNDS SOFT
          • 'iron filings', assonance sounds nice
            • Contrasts with the war described
              • FRICATIVE, SOUNDS SOFT
          • Similie 'like silk' contrasts with the iron. Again contrasting materials with the hardness and strength of iron and the soft luxury of silk
            • Contrasts with the war described
            • Side-note, the Fox seems to be becoming part of the history at this point rather than an uninterested observer
        • 'fax in his fox coat,/ for at a foxtrot travels this fox/ backwards and forwards in the museum'
        • 'Cubists and Surrealists'
          • Specific referencing implies knowledge. The fox, unlike our narrator has no knowledge.
            • Intertextuality
        • 'This Fox I foster - / he is the future.'
          • FRICATIVE
          • 'The future'
            • A future exhibit? IDEA OF TIME AGAIN. Bit sad, I personally, as a reader don't want our fox, who I have become quite fond of, don't want him to be looked at or stuffed.
              • Like prison doors?
        • No one else/ has seen him yet. But they are closing/ the iron doors.'
          • The end. The narrator is the only one who has had the pleasure of seeing this fox
            • Promises others will. on show like a museum exhibit?
              • Like prison doors?
          • 'Iron'
            • material again. Trong impenetrable
          • Structure
            • No regular line structure
              • Mimics the fox moving backwards and forwards through time
            • All stanzas are 1 sentence apart from the last
              • Isolates the final stanza as, not a musing on the past, but a look to the future
            • First person narrator gives us an understanding of the history the fox is passing
        • Possible links: -Greyson perry urn - Fantasia on a theme of James Wright
        • Killah Quotes
          • Beginning
        • End

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