Names of Horses Themes

This Study Guide consists of approximately 25 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Names of Horses.

Names of Horses Themes

This Study Guide consists of approximately 25 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Names of Horses.
This section contains 865 words
(approx. 3 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Names of Horses Study Guide

Mortality

"Names of Horses" has been called an animal elegy. The elegy typically centers upon the death of a person. But Hall's poem participates nonetheless in the long-standing tradition of this poetic mode, in praising the lives of the dead horses. The pasture where the generations of animals are buried becomes a sort of potter's field, or Flanders Field, a place where unknown soldiers are laid to rest. But whereas some soldiers who have fallen in the line of duty remain forever anonymous, Hall's poem attempts to rescue from the past the names that would otherwise be forgotten. In writing the poem, Hall honors the dead, recognizing their accomplishments and contributions as we would any virtuous person now deceased. The fact that the poem is addressing horses instead of a departed loved one or famous citizen makes the work all the more original and compelling.

The recitation of the...

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This section contains 865 words
(approx. 3 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Names of Horses Study Guide
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Gale
Names of Horses from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.