The Hunt

Starting with days in preparation
we work and sweat all night
So that we'll all be ready
when the hunting trumpet calls

Our teachers lecture about the fox
(what it looks like and how to prepare)
and yet we can only guess
at how it will try to evade us

The morning comes when we test ourselves
and see if we can catch it
We've done it before, so we should be experts
Yet the hunt is different each time

Students gather with their hunting supplies
and try to calm their nerves while
Restless hounds bark with excitement
and trumpets blare in encouragement

The hunt is long and tiring,
with no rest for the desperate students
we fret and we search and we try to grasp it
but most foxes prefer to run away

For one week, it is all we think about
And obsess over, like Moby's whale
It's huge in our minds and important to us
(but at least whales are easy to see)

The problem with foxes
Is that they are clever;
they know how to hide
and trick their pursuers

But with enough practice,
we are told we will catch it
and bring home the fox,
and then a week of sleep

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With this poem, I decided to try out two literary devices: conceit and allusion. I've never used either of these devices in a work of literature, so I wanted to see if I could use them to create a mood. While I won't give away what the hunt is supposed to represent, I will provide that I'm trying to give a mood of exhaustion and desperation. Inspired by "The Flea", I wanted to come up with my own clever metaphor for something that I was thinking about a lot. When I think of a hunt, I think of hounds barking and trumpets blaring; there's a lot going on. I wanted to bring this feeling of business into the poem to help create a mood that would support my attempted conceit. I decided that this would also be a good chance to use an allusion. As I was writing about stress and obsession, I immediately thought of Moby Dick and his infamous obsession with a white whale.