1. Horses
• What connotations do these animals have for
you?
• What words spring to mind as you look at
these images?
• Be as specific as possible and try not to talk in
general terms
• Once you have done this repeat it but imagine
you are 5 years old. Does that change your
perspective?

10. Working with a partner, discuss the
following:
• What situation is being described in the poem?
• Note down words / phrases that show the power of the horses
• How do the following descriptions make the horses seem terrible and frightening:
– ‘Their conquering hooves’
– ‘mute ecstatic monsters’
– ‘eyes … gleamed with a cruel apocalyptic light’?
• To what are the horses compared and to what effect?
• What attitude does the narrator seem to have towards the horses? Is it the same throughout
the poem? Explain your response.
• What contribution does the description of the environment make to the poem?
• Comment on the effect of the rhyme scheme.
• What is iambic pentameter? Which words are stressed in the poem as a result of this? Why
do you think that is?
• Comment on the use of time in the poem. How is time important?
• Read Muir’s diary extract/quotation (labelled 5 in the file). How is this relevant to the
portrayal of time in the poem?
• What is your personal response to the poem