[اطلق سراب]

The Hound

Life the hound
Equivocal
Comes at a bound
Either to rend me
Or to befriend me.
I cannot tell
The hound's intent
Till he has sprung
At my bare hand
With teeth or tongue.
Meanwhile I stand
And wait the event

الشرح



The Hound
By Robert Francis
The meaning of the words:
Hound: dog.
Equivocal: difficult to understand or to explain.
Bound: jump.
Befriend: friend.
To rend: to turn.
Bare: naked.
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Paraphrasing:
Life the hound
Equivocal
The poet says that life is a dog. He uses a phor when he says that life is a dog and the similarity between them they can not be understood.
Comes at a bound
Either to rend me
Or to befriend me.
I cannot tell
The hound’s intent
Till he has sprung
At my bare hand

With teeth or tongue.
Meanwhile I stand
And wait the event.
The poet says that life or dog comes at a jump either to destroy me or to be friend with me. He can not tell the life's aim till the life or the dog jumps at my naked hands and I have to give my hands to the dog or life. I have to stay and wait the events.
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
Purpose:
The poet wants to express his mixed feelings about life. One optimism when he feels life will nice and friend to him. The other is pessimism when he thinks life will destroy and turn him.
Theme:
Life is uncertain. One can not tell his destiny in life. Life either gives to human being or to destroy the person. No one can expect what will happen to him till he is going throw this life. While he is living he will be apprehensive.
How the poets express this theme?
The poet expresses this theme through one main figure of speech phor. This phor controls the whole poem. The first line has two words that one element of the phor A is B. the second line has one word that is the similarity A and B unlike. The rest of the poem explains that similarity where life compared to dog