Saturday, May 16, 2015

Hughes vs Rilke: Who Wrote It Better

                 In both Hughes and Rilke's poems The Jaguar and The Panther, respectively, there is a large focus on the animals features. Hughes describes his Jaguar as being very energetic. It seems to be again the cage it is bound with in. In Rilke's The Panther their is still awe and fear of the animal but it seems to be more subdued as it circled the cage. This seems synonymous with the two different species; the wise, thoughtful black panther and the tense, vicious jaguar. This might just be a stereotype though. According to this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgRxBFIG8xM, and this web article, http://www.differencebetween.net/science/nature/difference-between-panther-and-jaguars/, there is actually very little difference between the two. Other then a Jaguars spots and it being slightly smaller than a panther there is no difference. It is actually very difficult to tell a black panther and a black jaguar apart. Rilke could have maybe even been looking at a black leopard and not a black panther and never known. The difference in the character of the animal within each poem could actually be based on the mental state/treatment of each animal or it could be simply a difference between the poets view of big cats before their writing about them. The differences between the two poems tones are actually stately something about their own views or that specific animals state, not something about the species.

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