Edwin Muir's "The Horses": poem analysis and interpretation

¶ … Horses

This poem by Edwin Muir is in part about the bad things the "old world" (the world before the war) had to offer in comparison or contrast with the quiet power of the "new world" and its reliance on tools like horses. Horses once symbolized the society, but because of the disaster that silenced the radios and "swallowed its children…at one great gulp," there must be a dissent from acceptance of that old world. Hence, this is a dissenting poem. The "old" world was subjected to war and catastrophe, perhaps nuclear holocaust ("…that put the world to sleep"). It seems that while technology came along to supposedly help society, in the end that new technology (which is used not just for positive production but for war) is silent and rusting because society has abused its knowledge of technology.

Why do the horses appear? They are ghostly in this poem, but it is as though God or another religious icon has seen the damage done and resurrected the horse as a means to till the soil and give society another chance. Why would the horses first be heard as a "distant tapping on the road" and then "a deepening drumming" followed by a "wild wave charging"? Could this be God reminding society that it (society) once had these great animals as part of their culture, but then horses became obscure because there were new tractors to buy? And if God is going to bequeath a new generation of horses to this broken culture, with the hope of giving people another chance, the coming of those horses would not be traditional, but eerie and mysterious.

Religion plays a role in this poem, so the story could be a kind of tale contrasting heaven and Hell. Hell, of course, would be present after the seven days war when a warship passes with dead bodies piled up and the radios no longer bring music and information. Heaven, it is possible, is manifested through the coming of the horses. This is just conjecture of course. But for example, the religious theme is present because the horses are suspected of coming from "Eden." They are from "their own Eden," in fact. Of course the Bible (in Genesis) puts forth the story and Adam and Eve were from the Garden of Eden, so as far as the Christian religion, Eden is where it all started, once the Earth was created and humans and animals were created to populate the planet.

In the fourth line the word "covenant" is used, clearly a Biblical term that actually means "agreement." It is also used in legal terms, as another word for agreement. Another Biblical term in the poem is "twelvemonth" -- which meant a full year -- and another is "seven days" is used in the Bible to convey the period of time in one week, and the time it took to create the world. In the poem, on the sixth day a plane dove into the ocean; in Genesis readers are told that God created the world in six days and on the seventh day He rested. Thereafter "Nothing" was heard, the poem explains.

And so if we go the route of seeing this as having religious overtones and symbols, the entire poem may be a kind of baptism for society. The world was enamored with technology and had abandoned the ways that had gone before and had been successful and productive for society. Then came the technology and war and the society was submerged into "impenetrable sorrow" -- a kind of baptism of learning -- but with the coming of the horses, "fabulous steeds set on an ancient shield," the life is changed and there is a "new beginning."