1. The Poetry of Edwin Morgan
S4 Scottish Text S4
The Poetry of Edwin Morgan
'Hyena'

2. 'Snack-bar'
'Trio'
'Good Friday'
'Slate'
'Winter'
'Hyena'

3. S4 Scottish Text
'Hyena'
The final Morgan poem that we will study as part of the National 5 course is ‘Hyena’.
In this poem, Morgan adopts the persona of a hyena. He describes its environment, characteristics and lifestyle, giving the reader a sense of the animal’s patient, menacing personality.

4. S4 Scottish Text
'Hyena'
In this poem, Morgan adopts the persona of a hyena identified in the title and describes its environment, characteristics and lifestyle.
We get a sense of the animal’s patient, menacing personality as it waits for its next meal. Hyenas are nocturnal carnivores, found in Africa and Eurasia, and are generally perceived to be scavengers.

5. S4 Scottish Text
'Hyena'
The hyena in this poem is a spotted hyena, the largest species, which lives in sub-Saharan Africa. Spotted hyenas, unlike other species, hunt their own prey rather than relying on scavenging alone.
Many of us are familiar with some of the more stereotypical images of the Hyena through their portrayal in Disney’s classic film ‘The Lion King’.

6. S4 Scottish Text
'Hyena'
This clip from ‘The Lion King’ will give some insight into the image of the Hyena that we are all familiar with.

7. S4 Scottish Text
'Hyena'
We will now read through the poem together before considering its meaning.
If you spot any techniques then feel free to annotate them on your poem.
Consider the following
Word Choice
Imagery
Tone
Alliteration
Repetition
Rhyme

8. S4 Scottish Text
'Hyena'
We will now read through the poem together before considering its meaning.
If you spot any techniques then feel free to annotate them on your poem.
Consider the following
Word Choice
Imagery
Tone
Alliteration
Repetition
Rhyme

9. S4 Scottish Text 'Hyena' I am waiting for you.
The first line of the poem is immediately menacing as the speaker addresses the reader directly with the threat “I am waiting for you”.
'Hyena'
I am waiting for you.
I have been travelling all morning through the bush
and not eaten.
The hyena is clearly waiting on you to feast on you. Morgan’s language also indicates that this hyena will be hungry as it has been ‘travelling all morning’ and has ‘not eaten’. The word choice of ‘waiting’ indicates its patience…it is also sinister as it clearly wants to eat us…

10. S4 Scottish Text 'Hyena' I am lying at the edge of the bush
The landscape that the hyena lives in is clearly hostile, dangerous and inhospitable. This can be seen in the word choice of ‘dusty’ and ‘burnt out’.
'Hyena'
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.
The word choice of ‘panting’ indicates the desperation of the hyena…there is a suggestion that he could be capable of anything given his desperation for food.

11. S4 Scottish Text
The sinister tone continues with the alliteration of ‘fierce without food’ which continues to emphasise the danger of the creature as its need to feed and survive takes precedence above all else.
'Hyena'
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.
The hyena is clearly waiting on you to feast on you. Morgan’s language also indicates that this hyena will be hungry as it has been ‘travelling all morning’ and has ‘not eaten’. The word choice of ‘waiting’ indicates its patience…it is also sinister as it clearly wants to eat us…

12. S4 Scottish Text
The sinister tone continues with the alliteration of ‘fierce without food’ which continues to emphasise the danger of the creature as its need to feed and survive takes precedence above all else.
'Hyena'
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.
Even as it sits in the unbearable heat, with its eyes screwed to slits against the sun, it is fully alert and focused on the task at hand, always prepared to strike. The overall impression created in this opening stanza is of a devious, crafty opportunistic predator.

13. S4 Scottish Text 'Hyena' What do you think of me?
The figure opens the second stanza with a direct question to the reader. The tone is almost playful and provocative as the hyena wants us now to focus on its physique.
'Hyena'
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
Figurative language is used several times to compare aspects of the hyena to the continent of Africa and its environment. The hyena tells us it has a rough coat like Africa. Morgan creates a clear link between the creature and the environment, suggesting it has evolved specifically to cope with this inhospitable climate.

14. S4 Scottish Text 'Hyena' What do you think of me?
This idea is continued in the description of how the hyena’s fur has dark spots/Like the bush-tufted plains of Africa. Once again the animal is compared to its habitat, with the spots on its fur becoming the sporadic tufts of vegetation that mark the dry land. This particular simile serves to remind us of the harsh terrain from which the creature must eke out a living. Not only do we get an idea of what the hyena looks like, we begin to understand the need for patience, cunning and strength.
'Hyena'
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

15. S4 Scottish Text
The hyena compares its shape to that of Africa itself, while the repeated list of personal observations create the image of an animal that is poised and ready to attack.
'Hyena'
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.
This final detail, presented in a short sentence at the end of the stanza, is probably the most striking aspect of the hyena’s character. The short, blunt statement reveals what is perhaps its most negative feature – the fact it is a scavenger designed to gorge itself on the dead.

16. S4 Scottish Text 'Hyena' Do you like my song?
As the second stanza begins with a rhetorical question, so too does the third. This time, the hyena asks if we like its song. The questions directed at the reader encourage them to consider the hyena’s character.
'Hyena'
Do you like my song?
When the moon pours hard and cold on the veldt
I sing, and I am the slave of darkness.
Morgan’s use of metaphor helps to emphasise the hyena’s association with night as the hyena declares I am the slave of darkness. Here the hyena compares itself to a servant of night and we may well associate darkness and shady business. This fits with the hyena’s nocturnal nature and gives the impression of it lurking in the dark unknown.

17. S4 Scottish Text 'Hyena' Over the stone walls and the mud walls
This stanza closes with another question, Would you meet me there in the waste places? The question, a challenge or perhaps a sinister invitation, asks us to consider whether we would face the hyena in the dark wilderness. The hyena is a devious and patient creature that plays upon its reputation to intimidate the reader.
'Hyena'
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?

18. S4 Scottish Text 'Hyena' It is said I am a good match
There is a somewhat twisted humour here, with the hyena suggesting that it is a match for a ‘dead lion’. The hyena scavenges and feeds off of the dead.
'Hyena'
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.
The hyena described tearing at his golden flanks, gorging himself on his golden supper. The repetition of the word golden here emphasises the contrast between the awesome beauty and majesty of the lion and the ugliness of the hyena, but also suggests that this lion is the prized feast.

19. S4 Scottish Text 'Hyena' I have a crowd of fangs, and I use them.
Morgan employs a metaphor as the hyena refers to its crowd of fangs to emphasise the number of strong teeth in the creature’s powerful jaw.
Spotted hyenas have particularly large teeth in comparison to other carnivores and have the ability to slice sinew and flesh as well as crushing bone.
'Hyena'
I have a crowd of fangs, and I use them.
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.
Morgan uses another short sentence in this stanza, this time to dispel the common misconception that the hyena’s howl is laughter. The hyena tells us, quite simply, I am not laughing. There seems to be no cheer or joy surrounding the hyena, merely savage ferocity.

20. S4 Scottish Text 'Hyena' But I am not snarling either, only
panting in the sun, showing you
what I grip
carrion with.

21. S4 Scottish Text
Morgan’s use of a list and repetition continue the idea that this hyena is a creature of opportunity. The list of situations which yield a meal for the hyena shows us the range of circumstances that provide the opportunity the hyena awaits. The hyena, at times, relies on accidents and weakness –it preys on the vulnerable.
'Hyena'
I am waiting
for the foot to slide,
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 the rumour of blood.
It lists the chronology of an attack, waiting first for the foot to slide, then the heart to seize before waiting For the leaping sinews to go slack before finally a glazing eye and a rumour of blood.

22. S4 Scottish Text 'Hyena' I am crouching in my dry shadows
There is no sense of a creature which is rash and frantic; the hyena is a cautious, frighteningly malevolent animal, always waiting, always ready to attack. The use of the participle crouching near the end of the stanza mirrors this idea. The hyena is a coiled spring, poised in the darkness.
'Hyena'
I am crouching in my dry shadows
till you are ready for me.
My place is to pick you clean
and leave your bones to the wind.
The words my place reveal the instinctual savage and barbaric nature of the hyena. It lives this way not through choice but through necessity, and its compulsion to hunt and scavenge is part of the brutal but natural order of things.
The purpose of the poem has is to present the cold, menacing, calculating nature of the hyena and these words, directed towards the reader, make clear its savage potential.

23. S4 Scottish Text 'Hyena' Themes
The barbarism, brutality and savagery of the natural world is an important theme in this poem. We get an impression of a creature which preys on the weak and delights in death. The image of a laughing hyena (which is, potentially, light-hearted) is transformed into something much more sinister and malevolent.
The hyena’s savage cunning is obvious and its fearsome potential is explored throughout the poem. What is emphasised is the patient determination of the creature as it lies in wait, certain an opportunity will eventually present itself.

24. S4 Scottish Text 'Hyena' Themes
Another theme is survival. Though the hyena is presented as a savage, calculating creature, the description of its habitat helps us to understand why this must be. The hyena lives in a rough wilderness in which only those who adapt will survive.
Though the hyena can hunt to survive, it must also make use of any opportunity that presents a meal, relying on injury, infirmity or death to provide food.
This poem forces us to confront creatures and aspects of nature which make us uncomfortable. The hyena is an animal often associated with deviousness and cunning, and is feared not because it is courageous and fearless – like the lion – but because it is sly and opportunistic.