Mooses by Ted Hughes

The goofy Moose, the walking house-frame, Is lost In the forest. He bumps, he blunders, he stands. With massy bony thoughts sticking out near his ears – Reaching out palm upwards, to catch whatever might be falling from heaven – He tries to think, Leaning their huge weight On the lectern of his front legs. He can’t find the world! Where did it go? What does a world look like? The Moose Crashes on, and crashes into a lake, and stares at the mountain and cries: ‘Where do I belong? This is no place!’ He turns dragging half the lake out after him And charges the cackling underbrush – He meets another Moose He stares, he thinks: ‘It’s only a mirror!’ ‘Where is the world?’ he groans. ‘O my lost world! And why am I so ugly? And why am I so far away from my feet?’ He weeps. Hopeless drops drip from his droopy lips. The other Moose just stands there doing the same. Two dopes of the deep woods. Analysis The goofy Moose, the walking house-frame, Is lost In the forest. He bumps, he blunders, he stands.