1. Hyena
Edwin Morgan

2. Background to the poem Morgan adopts the persona of a hyena
Poem describes its environment, characteristics and lifestyle
Gives a sense of the animal’s patient, menacing personality as it waits for its next meal
Creates a menacing tone

3. Background -- Hyena Facts
Nocturnal carnivores, found in Africa and Eurasia
Generally perceived as scavengers
The hyena in this poem is a spotted hyena, the largest species
lives in sub-Saharan Africa.
Spotted hyenas hunt their own prey rather than relying on scavenging alone.
2018/9/13

4. Form and structure Free verse / Dramatic Monologue First person
allows hyena to communicate directly with reader (‘you’)
Gives deliberately menacing unsettling tone
Gives us a glimpse of the hyena’s character
No regular metre or rhyme scheme
Five stanzas
each with a specific focus shapes poem
2018/9/13

5. Stanza Structure Hyena’s habitat Appearance and physique
Hyena at night
Hyena’s teeth
Hyena’s hunting methods
2018/9/13

6. Themes and main ideas Theme Ideas The cruelty of nature
The Hyena represents death
The hyena’s dramatic monologue is trying to manipulate the reader’s impression of it (the animal) and nature
2018/9/13

7. Stanza 1 ~ Lines1- 4
Death is at the end for everyone
The hyena is extremely hungry and thirsty
Line 3 = short line: further emphasising how ravenous the animal is
Repetition of ‘bush’
Details of the inhospitable environment
Impressive / sinister that the hyena can live here
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 burnt-out kraal. I am panting, it is midday, I found no water-hole.
‘Kraal’ = village of huts

8. Stanza 1 ~ Lines 7 - 9
Alliteration – repeated ‘f’ sounds like snarling
More alliteration, this time ‘s’ – mirrors the threat offered by the hyena
The hyena is confident in its abilities
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.

9. Stanza 2 ~ Lines 10-13
Rhetorical question – challenges the reader
Extended simile compares the tufty coat of the hyena to the landscape of Africa
The hyena is an embodiment of Africa
Hyena is connected to the environment
What do you think of me? I have a rough coat like Africa. I am crafty with dark spots like the bush-tufted plains of Africa.

10. Stanza 2 ~ Lines 14-17
Simile – physical appearance linked to landscape
Simile – explicit (clear) link between animal and continent
Word choice – sprawling ‘suggests’ continent lying comfortably like an animal (Personification too!)
Waters – Africa in the sea is like the hyena in the grass
Repetition of ‘I’ - / vivid verbs – strong visual impression of animal
Short, blunt statement – hyena’s idea of itself; sinister and threatening
I sprawl as a shaggy bundle of gathered energy like Africa sprawling in its waters. I trot, I lope, I slaver, I am a ranger. I hunch my shoulders. I eat the dead.