Consistently praised for the depth and thematic concerns in her writings, Harjo has emerged as a major figure in contemporary American poetry. While Harjo’s work is often set in the Southwest, emphasizes the plight of the individual, and reflects Creek values, myths, and beliefs, her oeuvre has universal relevance. Bellm asserted: “Harjo’s work draws from the river of Native tradition, but it also swims freely in the currents of Anglo-American verse—feminist poetry of personal/political resistance, deep-image poetry of the unconscious, ‘new-narrative’ explorations of story and rhythm in prose-poem form.” According to Field, “To read the poetry of Joy Harjo is to hear the voice of the earth, to see the landscape of time and timelessness, and, most important, to get a glimpse of people who struggle to understand, to know themselves, and to survive.” Stay away from a horse long enough and you’ll start tapping your fingers to the beat of a trot.” – Unknown Though she was well-read, her prospects as a young woman did not look particularly hopeful – after school she worked in a factory, and in 1967 she had a daughter whom she placed for adoption. But that same year she relocated to New York City, becoming romantically involved with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, whom she would later live with at the infamous Chelsea hotel. In the years that followed she became an integral part of the downtown Manhattan scene that circled around Max’s Kansas City and CBGB and included Television, the Ramones and Blondie.

The Horses’ by Ted Hughes paints the scene in the first few lines of the poem. Here, the poet appears as climbing through the woods to reach the hilltop. While describing the ambiance around him the poet uses some interesting metaphors. Likewise, in the first two lines “hour-before-dawn dark” refers to particular darkness that is only visible just one hour before dawn. The light is there in the heart of darkness but still, it’s not dawn. That’s the beauty of nature that presents a unique beauty in every second. Whereas, in the second line, “Evil air” contains a personification as well as a metaphor. Here, the skin-biting sensation of cold is referred to with these words. The poet feels that the invisible air was biting his skin like evil. Additionally, “frost-making stillness” refers to the stillness of the air.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Gale (Detroit, MI), Volume 120: American Poets since World War II, 1992, Volume 175: Native American Writers of the United States, 1997.

The Horses’ by Ted Hughes talks about the horses and their graceful silence. The animals which are known for their pace, are paradoxically cherished in the poem for their heart-warming stillness. However, in his early years, the poet was fascinated with such epigrammatic beauty of nature and its creatures. He wrote several poems on other animals too either depicting their beauty or their resemblance with mankind. A critically-acclaimed poet, Harjo’smany honors include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, the Josephine Miles Poetry Award, the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets,the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America, and the American Indian Distinguished Achievement in the Arts Award. She has received fellowships from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rasmuson Foundation, and the Witter Bynner Foundation. In 2017 she was awarded the Ruth Lilly Prize in Poetry. In this short poem about horses, Lindsay writes from the perspective of a horse longing for freedom. He discusses the setting, the hay that’s been “Heaped up for me to eat” and contrasts moments of peace with those of pain. The men beat the horse until he is “sore” and he determines that one day he’s going to “break the halter-rope / And smash the stable-door” and escape. He will run free and see the hills of corn and the rises sun as he never could before. In several instances, the internal rhythm of the poem breaks. But, it breaks for the best. It reflects the sifting of pictures in the poet’s mind as if he is dreaming of the scene. This kind of writing is also called the stream-of-consciousness technique. Apart from that, the use of soft sounds like the “s”-sound makes the poem’s tone a pleasant one. The sound scheme utilized in the poem makes one feel the freshness of dawn just like the poet felt on that day. One of those horses achieved a unique claim to a piece of racing history: “Popham Down won the Scottish Grand National for us in 1964 and it is through this horse that my family can lay claim to as close an association possible to one of the most famous, or infamous moments in Racing History, the Grand National pile-up of 1967, which was solely brought about by Popham Down.Like ‘The Horses’ by Ted Hughes the following poems also present a similar kind of theme and talk about the beauty of the horses. Though Birtles may joke about racing and speak irreverently about his poetry from time to time, make no mistake that he takes the sport very seriously and is hugely keen to impart his love of it to others. A horse is a thing of beauty… none will tire of looking at him as long as he displays himself in his splendor.” – ​Xenophon