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HYENA

This poem, like Slate and Winter, deals with nature, or the natural environment.

Getting in Before you read the poem, think about these questions:

1. What is your favourite animal? What do you like about it?

2. Which animals do you find frightening? Why do you feel this way about them?

3. Are there any animals you find disturbing or disgusting? Why do you feel this way about them?

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Narrator

Describe the narrator's

­Strengths

­Appearance

­Surroundings

­Food

­Sound

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Setting

Describe the setting's

­ appearance

­ comfort

­ heat

­ resources

­inhabitants

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Dramatic monologue

All those uses of the word ‘I’ help us to realise that ‘Hyena’ is a dramatic monologue narrated in first person. The word monologue tells us that there is only one person – or rather, in this case, one hyena ­ talking. The speaker carries on uninterrupted, rather than taking part in a conversation. The word dramatic means that the speaker is not on his own and talking to himself, but that someone else is supposed to be there listening.

We are never meant to think that the speaker in a dramatic monologue is the voice of the poet. The speaker is a distinct character that the author has invented. This kind of character is sometimes called a persona. The difference between an author and his persona is like the difference between an actor and his character.

One feature of dramatic monologues is that their speakers often let slip some of their nastier or more unpleasant thoughts, habits or actions.  

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Poem of Address

Who is the hyena speaking to?

Find evidence to support your answer.

In this poem the hyena is talking directly to us, the readers. We know this from the very first line,

‘I am waiting for you.’

However he’s going a little bit further too. It is as if we, the readers, are standing in for and representing the whole of humanity. So, by talking to us, the hyena can say what he wants to say to all humans, and can show what he thinks of all humans. You may have noticed already that he does not

seem to have a very high opinion of us.

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• Many cultures have historically viewed the hyena in a bad light. Negative associations have generally stemmed from hyenas' tendency to scavenge graves for food. They are one of the few creatures naturally suited for this, due to their ability to devour and digest every part of a carcass, including bone. As such, many associate hyenas with gluttony, uncleanliness and cowardice.

• The haunting laughter­like calls of the Spotted Hyena inspired the idea in local cultures that they could imitate human voices and call their victims by name. Hyenas are also associated with divination and sometimes thought of as tools of demons and witches. In African folklore, witches and sorcerers are thought to ride hyenas or even turn into them.

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Stanza One

I am waiting for you.

I have been travelling all morning through the bush

and not eaten.

I am lying at the edge of the bush

on a dusty path that leads from the burnt­out kraal. 5

I am panting, it is midday, I found no water­hole.

I am very fierce without food and although my eyes

are screwed to slits against the sun

you must believe I am prepared to spring.

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Stanza Two

There are three similes in this stanza. (Remember, a simile is when one thing is compared to another using the word like or the word as.)

Find the three similes and write them down

What do all these similes have in common?

What do you think of me? 10

I have a rough coat like Africa.

I am crafty with dark spots

like the bush­tufted plains of Africa.

I sprawl as a shaggy bundle of gathered energy

like Africa sprawling in its waters. 15

I trot, I lope, I slaver, I am a ranger.

I hunch my shoulders. I eat the dead.

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Stanza Three

‘veldt’ = an area of open grassland.

Do you like my song?

When the moon pours hard and cold on the veldt

I sing, and I am the slave of darkness. 20

Over the stone walls and the mud walls and the ruined places

and the owls, the moonlight falls.

I sniff a broken drum. I bristle. My pelt is silver.

I howl my song to the moon ­ up it goes.

Would you meet me there in the waste places? 25

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Stanza Four

It is said I am a good match

for a dead lion. I put my muzzle

at his golden flanks, and tear. He

Is my golden supper, but my tastes are easy.

I have a crowd of fangs, and I use them. 30

Oh and my tongue ­ do you like me

When it comes lolling out over my jaw

very long, and I am laughing?

I am not laughing.

But I am not snarling either, only 35

panting in the sun, showing you

what I grip

carrion with.

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Stanza Five

I am waiting

for the foot to slide, 40

for the heart to seize,

for the leaping sinews to go slack,

for the fight to the death to be fought to the death,

for a glazing eye and a rumour of blood.

I am crouching in my dry shadows 45

till you are ready for me.

My place is to pick you clean

and leave your bones to the wind.

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Interpretation One

Some readers think that the hyena himself has delusions of grandeur.

He thinks he is an awesome beast, and something to be terrified of. He is a legend in his own mind.

However, he is only fierce when his enemy is dead.

The poem finally condemns the hyena for thinking he’s wonderful when he’s just a cowardly scavenger

Interpretation Two

Some readers think the poem warns us humans not to have delusions of grandeur.

The hyena is there to remind us that in the end we’ll all be dead, and all our achievements come to an end.

His references to human violence when he mentions the burnt out kraal warn us not to have too high an opinion of ourselves because humans are basically destructive and violent.

The poem finally condemns us for thinking we are the pinnacle of evolution when we’re just vicious and violent.

Interpretation Two

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1. Using at least two quotations from the poem to support what you say, write a paragraph to explain how the hyena comes across as an unnerving character, a character who unsettles or disturbs us.

2. Using at least two quotations to support what you say, write a paragraph to explain how the hyena comes across as a figure of death.

3. Now work with a partner if you can. Try to prove, again using at least two quotations from the poem, that Morgan does have at least something positive to say about the hyena.

4. Still working with your partner, prove that Morgan can also make the reader feel sympathy for the hyena.

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