Cat and Mouse

also both always appealing to higher powers for their survival.

SUMMARY The poem likens the mouse's desire to escape the cat to a
prayer "contracted" to the cat: the cat has the power to make
The poem describes a countryside scene: on a hill where the
the mouse's wish come true or not. Similarly, the poem
grass has been chewed to stubble by sheep, in blazing sunshine,
suggests, human beings who wish to survive might offer up
a little mouse cowers, wanting to run out into the open but
prayers to God. Both animals and human beings, in other
feeling too scared.
words, are "contracted" to powers beyond their control,
Time and the world itself, the speaker reflects, are too ancient whether in "God's eye" or the plain luck involved in everyday
to be changed. Describing the view from the hill, the speaker existence. (Perhaps these prayers are also "contracted" in the
imagines seeing five miles into the countryside; the whole sense that they're made small by their context. The mouse's
scene seems to vibrate with hot, weighty, barely-conscious life. prayer means little in the grander scheme of nature; human
Both humans and animals, the speaker imagines, say their wishes and desires, the poem suggests, are similarly puny.)
prayers—whether they believe they're praying to God, or just Put simply, the poem argues, living comes with risk—and there's
hoping a cat won't catch them. little anything or anyone can do about it except to assess that
risk and hope for the best.
THEMES Where this theme appears in the poem:
• Lines 1-10
NATURE, POWER, AND DEATH
"Cat and Mouse" presents the natural world as a
harsh, risky place where life is always threatened by
violence and instinct. The poem offers a snapshot of an LINE-BY
LINE-BY-LINE
-LINE ANAL
ANALYSIS
YSIS
environment in which a creature (here, a mouse) must calculate
the risk of death in order to survive. It portrays this potential
LINES 1-3
violence as a fact of life, built into a natural system based on a On the sheep-cropped ...
hierarchy of power. The poem implies that these same brutish ... dared not take.
rules govern humankind, too: that we are menaced by "God" or The poem's first long sentence sets the scene: it's a summer's
fate just as small creatures are menaced by predators. day on a hilltop, and a mouse is "crouched," hoping to make a
The poem portrays nature as a dog-eat-dog—or, rather, cat-eat- break for it and evade the claws of a predatory cat.
mouse—world. It depicts a nervous country mouse crouching The first line creates atmosphere through imagery
imagery. The hilltop
under cover on a hot summer's day, hoping to make a break for is "sheep-cropped," meaning its grasses have been nibbled
it. But one wrong move could result in death by cat. By instinct, short by sheep. Though this might seem like an insignificant
the mouse knows that running across the landscape is a chance detail, it subtly introduces the poem's main theme: the natural
it "dare[s] not take." Though the environment appears "sheep- world is governed by ancient instinct, not by reason. The sheep
cropped" and tame, it's full of hidden danger. eat the grass because it's their nature to do so, just as a lurking
The poem zooms out to suggest that this instinctive predator might snap up a tasty mouse without a second
assessment of risk is part of what it means to be a living thought. And a world ruled by sheep-eat-grass, cat-eat-mouse
creature on Earth. The world, says the poem, is "too old to instinct, the poem will go on to suggest, is a pretty terrifying
alter"—that is, it's defined by ancient and unchangeable laws, one to live in!
ones that govern humanity as much as animals. The poem The "hot sun" beating down already hints at that terror and
implicitly links the mouse's predicament with the human anxiety. Thick /uh/ assonance in this line—"su
ummit, under hot
community in nearby "villages" and "farms." Just as the mouse su
un"—makes the moment feel heavy with tension.
might be caught by the cat at any moment, so, too, can human The poem's main verb doesn't arrive until line 2: "The mouse
beings get struck down by all kinds of threats, such as illness or crouched
crouched." This subtle delay creates a mood of suspense: the
natural disaster. The poem suggests, then, that simply to live is mouse is pausing to weigh up its options. The /ow/ assonance in
to be endangered, and that the mouse's fear of the cat is hardly "mou
ouse crou
ouched" links the little creature with its posture,
different from people's feelings as they contemplate death. suggesting its tension as it considers whether to scurry out into
And if both people and animals are always threatened, they're the open or not.

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This humble little country mouse, then, is contemplating a risk connection between the mouse's predicament and the similar
which, in the end, "it dare[s] not take." That is, it can see an challenges human beings face. In a world "too old to alter," the
opportunity, but its instincts are telling it to hold back. An poem's wide view from the hilltop suggests, people live under
enjambed line here mirrors its anxiety: the constant threat of death just as much as mice do, even if
they aren't always as conscious of that threat.
[...] the chance The speaker goes on: all life, whether animal or human,
It dared not take. "hum[s]" along in a "heat-heavy / Stupor." The imagery here
suggests that all living things are part of a constant low-burning
That mid-sentence line break leaves the reader in suspense for energy—one that smolders like coals, and moves as slowly as
a moment, waiting to see what the mouse will do. In the end, it the sun seems to on a long hot summer afternoon, as if in a
seems, the risk is just too great: this mouse is frozen in terror. "stupor." The word "stupor," meaning a drowsy near-
Throughout the poem, flexible free vverse
erse reflects the action in unconsciousness, also hints that all this activity takes place
its form. Without a regular meter
meter, the poem can stop and start mostly unconsciously. Life, in other words, doesn't go on
as abruptly as a mouse thinking about making a dash for it. because people and mice think about it or make it happen: it just
goes.
LINES 4-5
Whatever happens to the mouse, whatever happens to anyone
... or anything, the mysterious forces of life keep the world moving.
... five mile prospect— The specific words the speaker chooses here conjure up both
In lines 4 and 5, the poem zooms out from the miniature scene the literal scene on the hot hillside, and a grander feeling that
of the nervous mouse to show readers the whole countryside. everything is part of the same mighty (and dangerous) process.
This passage will survey everything that's going on around the
mouse, drawing attention to the rhythms that govern all LINES 8-10
life—not just animal life. People, the poem will suggest, are just ...
as much a part of nature's violence as cats and mice. ... of a cat.
Here, the speaker begins with a broad proclamation. The world, In the last three lines, the speaker compares the mouse's desire
the speaker says, is "too old to alter": in other words, the forces for survival to humanity's prayers. The speaker presents this
that govern life are ancient and unchangeable (a common idea as a cry of surprise, as though marveling at the deep,
theme in Hughes's poetry). By layering this observation on top frightful mystery at the heart of existence:
of a picture of a terrified mouse, the speaker suggests that the
threat of sudden violence and death are facts of life. Whether to two
Not only are these facts ever-present, but they apply to the Feet or four, how are prayers contracted!
wider world too. The poem suddenly zooms out from its close-
up on the mouse to a "five mile prospect" of the landscape all These lines suggest that two-legged creatures (that is, people)
around—in other words, a wide view. This broadened and four-legged animals (like mice) aren't that different: every
perspective symbolically suggests that the poem is making a living thing is just trying to survive from one moment to the
general point about all of life, not a specific point about animal next. And if that's true, every creature, animal or human, is
life. always "pray[ing]" for the same thing: survival. They're trying to
But it also gives the reader a sense of what it's like to feel as make a "contract[]" with either the cat that hunts them or the
small and helpless as a mouse. To a mouse, five miles is God that guides them.
practically an entire universe. The long /i/ assonance in "fiive In both cases, there's a power imbalance here. The cats have
miiles" makes the distance seem that much more daunting. the power over the mice, and God is much stronger than any
individual human being. And to the mouse, the cat is like a god,
LINES 6-7 possessing the power to decide if it lives or dies.
Woods, villages, farms—hummed ... God, the poem thus suggests, might seem to have power over
... Stupor of life. human life in much the same way a cat has power over a mouse.
In lines 6 and 7, the poem describes the "five mile" view from "Contracted," then, might also mean made smaller. The mouse's
the top of the hill, painting a picture of a countryside full of prayer to stay alive means little to the cat; humankind, as
"woods, villages, [and] farms." Those "woods" might be the compared to God, is puny.
domain of little creatures like the mouse—but the villages and Listen to the way the speaker uses repetition in the poem's final
farms are sites of human activity. line:
Mentioning these human dwellings here, the speaker draws a

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 Whether in God’s eye or the eye of a cat. cats. The alliteration of "tto two/ Feet or four" (lines 8-9)
strengthens the speaker's link between humans and other life
That diacope on "eye" underlines this poem's stark perspective: by tying different words together.
humanity is to God, this repetition suggests, as a mouse is to a
cat. And, by extension, a mouse and a human being are both just Where Alliter
Alliteration
ation appears in the poem:
little creatures caught up in the "heat-heavy / Stupor of life,"
hoping the big creatures will either be merciful to them or • Line 1: “summit,” “sun”
overlook them. • Line 3: “take”
• Line 4: “Time”
• Line 5: “Too,” “to”
SYMBOLS • Line 6: “hummed,” “heat-heavy”
• Line 8: “to two”
• Line 9: “Feet,” “four”
THE MOUSE
The poem's tiny, quivering mouse is a symbol of ASSONANCE
the
fragility of life—a predicament that people and "Cat and Mouse" uses assonance to create music and
animals share. atmosphere.
As the poem's titular mouse "crouch[es]," terrified, in its hiding In line 1, for instance, similar vowel sounds create a sense of
place, it reminds readers that humans are under the constant delicate tension:
threat of death just as much as animals are. In the grand
scheme of things, every living creature could be snuffed out in On the sheep-cro
opped su
ummit, under ho
ot su
un,
an instant.
Symbolically, then, the mouse suggests that all life is fragile and These carefully-balanced sounds give the line a sense of poise
tenuous (even if people don't always feel that truth as acutely that reflects the mouse's situation: the mouse, like this line,
as mice do). seems suspended in a moment of tension, trying to decide
whether or not to make a break for it.
Where this symbol appears in the poem: The following line uses a similar approach to evoke the mouse's
• Lines 1-3: “On the sheep-cropped summit, under hot perspective: the long /ow/ sounds of "mou ouse," "crou
ouched," and
sun, / The mouse crouched, staring out the chance / It "o
out" stretch the tension out that little bit longer.
dared not take.”
Where Assonance appears in the poem:
• Line 1: “On,” “cropped,” “summit,” “under,” “hot,” “sun”
POETIC DEVICES • Line 2: “mouse crouched,” “out”
• Line 4: “Time”
ALLITERATION • Line 5: “five mile”
The poem uses moments of alliter
alliteration
ation to bring images to life • Line 8: “to two”
on the page. • Line 9: “or four”
In the first five lines, for instance, the /s/ sibilance in words like
"ssummit" and "ssun" (line 1) creates a hushed, tense atmosphere. CAESURA
And the /t/ in "ttake," "TTime," and "T
Too old to" (lines 3-5) has a Caesur
Caesuraa alters the poem's pace to match its mood. In the first
spiky quality that suggests the threat of violence; it's as if the two lines, for instance, caesurae evoke the mouse's terrified
cat might pounce at any moment. dithering:
The most prominent example of alliteration appears in line 6,
when the poem surveys the view from the hilltop where the On the sheep-cropped summit,, || under hot sun,
mouse is hiding. The "five mile prospect"—which is full of life, The mouse crouched,, || staring out the chance
both animal and human—"h hum[s]" and is "h
heat-hheavy." These
breathy /h/ sounds evoke the heat of the sun. For a moment, it Notice how the first caesura delays the arrival of the main verb
sounds as if the poem is panting like a hot dog. ("crouched"), building a hesitant atmosphere even before the
reader even really knows what's going on. The second,
At the end of the poem, the speaker concludes that humans and
meanwhile, mirrors the mouse's frozen fear as it "crouche[s]"
mice aren't really that different at all: both pray (or just
and waits for an opportunity to run.
fervently hope) to survive under the watchful eyes of gods or

Page 3
Caesurae can also compress lines, as in the list-like first half of movement:
line 6, which describes the view from the hilltop: "Woods,, ||
villages,, || farms[.]" These caesurae, combined with asyndeton Whether to two
(the lack of an "and"), allows the poem to quickly sketch an Feet or four [...]
entire landscape, and to remind readers that this landscape is
full of countless miniature dramas: the mouse isn't the only Here, the enjambment creates a sense of surprise, reflecting
living creature grappling with matters of life and death on this the speaker's amazement over everything humanity has in
sunny afternoon. common with the animal kingdom.
Finally, caesura can also act as an intensifier, as it does in line
9: Where Enjambment appears in the poem:
Whether to two • Lines 2-3: “chance / It”
Feet or four,, || how are prayers contracted! • Lines 4-5: “world / Too”
• Lines 6-7: “heat-heavy / Stupor”
This comma adds emphasis to the word "how," which captures • Lines 8-9: “two / Feet”
the speaker's astonishment at the world's primal violence and
the shared predicament of all living creatures.
IMAGERY
The poem uses imagery to set the scene and to play up the
Where Caesur
Caesuraa appears in the poem:
contrast of scale between the tiny mouse and the wide world
• Line 1: “summit, under” around it.
• Line 2: “crouched, staring” The poem's imagery starts with the "sheep-cropped summit"
• Line 6: “Woods, villages, farms—hummed” and "hot sun" of the first line. These images set the poem firmly
• Line 9: “four, how” in a natural world governed by ancient powers. That blazing
sun, these images hint, gives life both to the grass and the
ENJAMBMENT sheep; everything is in balance, including, by extension, the
"Cat and Mouse" uses enjambed lines to control its pace and mouse and the cat. What's more, the scale of the setting—the
the flow of its thoughts. high summit and the mighty sun itself—makes the mouse seem
The enjambment in lines 2-3, for instance, helps to create even more vulnerable and tiny.
tension as the mouse "crouche[s]" in hiding: The same sense of scale is at work in the second stanza. Here,
the "five mile prospect," which takes in all the nearby "woods,
[...] staring out the chance villages," and "farms," is full of vibrant (and violent) life. Again,
It dared not take. this wide view makes the mouse seem that little bit
smaller—and reminds readers that they, too, are just little
This enjambment helps to show that the mouse is hesitating: creatures in a big world.
the line break creates a strained pause, mirroring the mouse's The image of the "heat-heavy / Stupor of life," meanwhile,
anxiety about whether or not to make a break for it. The erratic makes the whole world seem charged with weighty, burning,
jumpiness of this enjambment also mimics herky-jerky, mouse- slow-moving energies, whether of survival or annihilation.
like scurrying more generally. Again, this all applies to human beings, too, who, in the grand
Lines 6-7 similarly use enjambment to draw out a long scheme of things, are driven by the same forces as the mouse.
pause—but one that feels rather different. Here, the speaker
regards the landscape, which: Where Imagery appears in the poem:
• Line 1: “the sheep-cropped summit,” “hot sun”
[...] hummed its heat-hea
heavy
vy
• Lines 5-7: “the five mile prospect— / Woods, villages,
Stupor of life.
farms—hummed its heat-heavy / Stupor of life.”
This mid-sentence line break makes for a heavy landing on the
word "Stupor." And that's exactly the point: the world is moving REPETITION
slowly and heavily, burning with hot life like a low fire. Placing Repetition appears in two different forms in the last three lines
special emphasis on "Stupor," the enjambment here reminds of the poem:
readers that the force of life is older and slower than the small,
quick movements (and lives!) of mice and men. Whether to two
The poem's final enjambment returns to quick, jerky Feet or four, how are prayers contracted!

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 Whether in God’s eye or the eye of a cat. sections, giving the speaker's voice a herky-jerky, unpredictable
feeling that suits the poem's description of a nervous mouse
First up, there's the anaphor
anaphoraa on the word "Whether," which (and, by extension, its depiction of the danger and tension of all
insistently links people and animals, suggesting that "prayers" lives, animal or human).
and hopes are pretty much the same for all living
creatures—whether they're two-footed like humans or four- METER
footed like mice. The repetition here suggests that, while God "Cat and Mouse" is written in free vverse
erse, meaning it doesn't use
might dictate what happens to a human being, the cat plays the a regular meter
meter. This gives the poem a spontaneous feeling, as
same role for the mouse: the mouse's hopes that the cat will though it's just a snapshot of a particular moment in time—a
leave it alone, in this speaker's eyes, are much same as people's snapshot that happens to capture a little mouse considering
prayers that God will be merciful to them. whether to risk its life by running into the open. The poem's
unpredictable rhythms might also mimic the jerky, hesitant
The diacope of "eye," meanwhile, makes the rather stark
movements of the mouse itself.
suggestion that humanity is to God as a mouse is to a cat: just a
little creature hoping a bigger creature will be merciful to it. RHYME SCHEME
This repetition suggests that the whole universe is a predatory
"Cat and Mouse" doesn't use a rhrhyme
yme scheme
scheme. Perhaps rhyme
and dangerous place. There's no loving God here: just the big
would feel too neat for the dangerous, chaotic, uncertain world
staring "eye" of a toothy predator.
this poem describes. Rhyme often suggests order, harmony,
All in all, then, the poem's repetitions help to draw clear and predictability—but in this poem, no one, not even the cat,
parallels between the predicaments of animals and human knows whether the mouse is about to meet its end!
beings. Every living creature, the poem suggests, is just doing
its best to survive in a big, dangerous, and carnivorous world.
SPEAKER
Where Repetition appears in the poem:
Readers don't learn much about the speaker in "Cat and
• Line 8: “Whether” Mouse." In fact, the speaker is more a detached observer than a
• Line 10: “Whether,” “eye,” “eye” character, observing first the hilltop, then the mouse, then the
surrounding landscape.
But readers do start to get a picture of what the speaker
VOCABULARY believes in when the speaker makes some general remarks on
the mouse's predicament in lines 8 and 9:
Sheep-cropped (Line 1) - In other words, the hilltop is covered
in grass nibbled short by sheep.
Whether to two
Summit (Line 1) - Hilltop. Feet or four, how are prayers contracted!
Prospect (Line 5) - View.
Stupor (Lines 6-7) - A dulled state of near unconsciousness or The speaker, in other words, feels that there is little difference
sleepiness. between the mouse hoping for survival and a human being
praying to God: both are at the mercy of a higher power.
Contracted (Line 9) - "Contracted," here, can both mean
"drawn up like a legal agreement" and "shrunk."
SETTING
FORM, METER, & RHYME "Cat and Mouse" is set somewhere in the countryside. Through
its images of the "sheep-cropped summit" and the "hot sun," the
FORM poem builds a picture of a summer's day on a particular hilltop.
A free vverse
erse poem, "Cat and Mouse" invents its own form First, the poem focuses on the mouse's miniature drama; then,
rather than using a traditional shape (such as the sonnet
sonnet). The it zooms out to take in the "five mile prospect" of the landscape
poem is written as one continuous stanza, but that stanza can all around, with its "villages" and "farms."
also be divided into three distinct parts: a three-line tercet that The setting's wide sweep thus supports the poem's argument
describes the mouse's dilemma, a four-line quatrain that zooms that human beings, like mice, are just little creatures steered
out to take in the whole landscape, and another closing tercet (and destroyed) by forces much bigger than they are.
that philosophically reflects on the terror of existence.
Abrupt shorter lines mark the transition between these

Page 5
 kinds of ancient, earthy forces he describes in this poem. He
CONTEXT thus welcomed the outpouring of iconoclastic, youthful energy
that the '60s brought about.
LITERARY CONTEXT
The English poet Ted Hughes (1930-1998) is considered one of
the foremost writers of the 20th century. His arrival on the
scene with his 1957 debut, The Hawk in the Rain, was a shock to
the system of British poetry, challenging the dominance of
more restrained and formal poets like Philip Larkin
Larkin. To this day,
Hughes remains one of the most widely read poets in the
English language.
"Cat and Mouse" was first published in Lupercal, Hughes's
second collection. Like much of Hughes's early work, this book
explores the natural world while resisting sentimentality.
Nature, Hughes argues, isn't just beautiful and wise, as 19th-
century Romantic poets like William W Wordsworth
ordsworth might have
claimed. Rather, it's full of violence, brutality, and death. As this
poem puts it, nature is "too old to alter," and human beings
would be foolish to think they can control it. Hughes also
confronted the instinctive violence of the animal kingdom in
poems like "Ha
Hawk
wk Roosting
Roosting" and "Esther's
Esther's TTomcat
omcat."
Hughes saw it as a poet's duty to reveal and explore the ancient
powers of the world. In his own words, "any form of violence,
any vehement form of activity, invokes the bigger energy, the
elemental power circuit of the universe." Many of Hughes's
most famous poems deal with similar themes, such as "TheThe
Jaguar
Jaguar" (which depicts a caged jaguar as a kind of visionary) and
the Crow series (whose folkloric Crow character delivers
Hughes's reflections on instinct and religion).

HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Lupercal, the collection this poem first appeared in, was
published by Faber and Faber in 1960, three years after Ted
Hughes moved to America with his wife (and fellow poet) Sylvia
Plath
Plath. But Hughes never severed his English roots; this poem's
landscapes draw on his memories of his childhood in the
Yorkshire countryside.
While this poem might seem to deal mostly with eternal, primal
forces and changeless landscapes, it's also a product of its
times. In the 1960s, many young people became dissatisfied
with the staid, stiff-upper-lip conservative attitudes of their
parents' generation, and rebelled in all sorts of
ways—artistically, politically, and personally. Youth culture
became truly powerful and influential for the first time.
Hughes was among those who believed that society had
become too repressed in the years that followed World War II,
and he felt that people needed to get back in touch with the

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