Hushed Howls
The hail outside screams
As the trail in my heart dreams
Of a night not marooned
Of a night well pruned.
The throbbing torment works it’s way
Like shrapnels in the day
Bloody and bruised, the night amused
A heart aching to bellow,
Oh, how I wish everything was mellow.
The pain being red
Wishing for the world to end
Holding onto hope
For the wolves to feed on,
Every coast seeming distant
Every hand non-existent.
Bloody and bruised, the night amused
Gaping for a way to heal,
All alone in Typhon’s court
Watching your heart exhaust
As the wolves make way to cleave.
Assignment
Poem- Hushed Howls by pravitha kp
The poem ‘Hushed Howls’ is a reflection of the poet’s tumultuous state of mind onto nature, specifically the night time. It begins with the mention of a ‘screaming’ hail, which echoes the screams of the poet’s mind and her emotional state. The poem beautifully captures the poet’s wishes for calmness and for a night that is ‘well pruned’. There is a tone of hopelessness and despair in the poem, brought about by the lines ‘Every hand non-existent’ and ‘Every coast seeming distant’. An essence of exhaustion and weariness of the heart is revealed by the final two lines of the poem.
While there is a recurring use of the rhyme scheme AABB, there are a few lines which punctuate this rhyme scheme. In the first line itself, there is a use of personification, with the mention of the hail which ‘screams’. There are a few uses of alliteration as well, with the phrases ‘Bloody and bruised’ and ‘Holding onto hope’. The line ‘Bloody and bruised, the night amused’ is repeated in the poem, tying the entire poem, which is written in a single stanza, together. A wolf imagery is used twice in the poem. Wolves are a symbol of freedom and the poet longs for freedom from her burdened emotional state. There is a Hellenistic reference in the poem with the mention of Typhon’s court.
In conclusion, the poem brilliantly captures the essence of a fatigued and disturbed emotional state, with the image of a night threaded through it. Written in a single stanza, the scarcity of the use of Caesura lends the poem a quite breathless tone, mimicking the poet’s breathless and desperate emotional condition.