The Jaguar is a poem written by Famous English poet, Ted Hughes. The poem consist of 20 lines which is divided into five Quatrains. The Rhyming scheme for each quatrains is ABBA.
The Jaguar Poem by Ted Hughes Summary
Summary of The Jaguar By Ted Hughes
In poem, poet describe a situation of Zoo animals in Zoo. There are many animals in zoo but they are living a very painful life and they have loosed their natural instincts. Out of all the animals in Zoo, there is only one animal who has no affect of cages.
He lives in Zoo like he is still living in Jungle. That animal is Jaguar who has no affect of Zoo and its cages. Jaguar lives with pride in Zoo and looks at human being with his fearless eyes.
The story of poem begins with poet who says, Monkeys are yawning and adoring their fleas in the sun. The parrots are shouting like they are on fire and they are walking like a prostitute to attract a visitors of zoo. Tiger and Lion who used to be strong and fearless are seem tired in zoo.
Are these just fossils and no life in them ? As these animals are not going anywhere from their places so it feels like cages are empty. Their cages are smelling extremely bad as their animals are not doing any activity.
Who is that animal which is different from other animals of the zoo ? Who is running actively while seeing people. While the crowd has gathered to look at this animal. Crowd has lost so much in thoughts by looking at this animal like they are dreaming.
Here poet is talking about Jaguar who haven’t lost his Aura even though he is in Zoo. Jaguar still walks in zoo like he used to walk in Jungle. Cages made no difference to Jaguar.
Jaguar is the only animal in zoo who is very energetic, has no sadness on his face and his eyes are still fearless. His blood has so much energy that he does not listen to anyone. He roams everywhere in the zoo. For this Jaguar, cage is not a cage there is no one in the world who can imprison him.
Jaguar is free even though he is imprisoned. Jaguar cell is visionary which means it gives him a vision, his attitude and his walks are his freedom. The world lies before his feet. For the Jaguar, Cage’s floor is like a sky and he has no boundary in his cage.
In poem, poet is trying to give us a message that it does not matter what happens in life but we should never loose our Aura. No matter how many challenges and problems you face in life but you should never loose your standard and always live like a Jaguar.