The panther? It had already dragged
you
As if in its jaws, across Europe.
As if trailing between its legs,
Your mouth crying open, or not even
crying any more,
Just letting yourself be dragged.
Its real prey
Had skipped and escaped. So the
fangs,
Blind in frustration,
Crushed your trachea, strangled the
sounds. The Rorschach
Splashing of those outpourings
stained
Your journal pages. Your effort to
cry words
Came apart in aired blood
Enriched by the adrenalins
Of despair, terror, sheer fury –
After forty years
The whiff of that beast, off the
dry pages,
Lifts the hair on the back of my
hands.
The thrill of it. The sudden
Look that locked on me
Through your amber jewels
And as I caught you lolling locked
Its jaws into my face. The tenacity
Of the big cat’s claim
On the one marked down and once
disabled
Is a chemical process – a
combustion
Of the stuff of judgement.
So it sprang over you. Its jungle
prints
Hit your page. Plainly the blood
Was your own. With a laugh I
Took its full weight. Little did I
know
The shock attack of a big predator
According to survivors numbs the
target
Into drunken euphoria. Still
smiling
As it carried me off I detached
The hairband carefully from between
its teeth
And a ring from its
ear, for my trophies.
There is imagery of masculinity even from the very first few lines. "As if trailing between its legs" (line 3) is a masculine, phallic metaphor. This relates to Plath's poem because she begins by saying that the panther is stalking her and that "one day [she'll] have [her] death of him" (line 2). In both poems, the panther, which is a very masculine and strong image, is immediately being set up as a male--embodying the idea of masculinity.
Moving further into the poem, Hughes makes the connection between masculinity and the next aspect, violence. "The tenacity / of the big cat's claim / On the one marked down and once disabled / Is a chemical process" (21-24), explains that the tie pulling masculinity and violence together is a chemical process -- or therefore biologically instituted within men. In this way, violence is irreverently bonded to masculinity.
This is mirrored in Plath's "Pursuit" when she explains, "Insatiate, he ransacks the land / Condemned by our ancestral fault / Crying: blood, let blood be spilt" (13-15). This shows that, historically, violence has been thought of in a certain way--that it's connected to men. Therefore, this connection between violence and masculinity is the ancestral fault of men--the burden they have to bare is a lust for violence in their lives.
One line that our group discussed thoroughly was the various readings of, "With a laugh I / Took its full weight" (lines 29-29). "It" referring to the weight of the panther, and--in this case--the weight of violence within the world of writing. When I read this poem, I read the line as Hughes saying that he took the weight of the violence off of her because he sees his job as her husband to protect her and shield her from the violence. And, that to him, this task it almost laughable because he, as a male, is often put up to this task. However, during our discussion, it was almost brought up that this line could be read as (since the poem was written after Plath committed suicide) the panther (or violence) coming back after Hughes now that it wasn't solely attacking Plath.
Moving further into the poem, Hughes shows his own view of the beast (the panther) and how it affects him. "After forty years / The whiff of that beast, off the dry pages, / Lifts the hair on the back of my hands. / The thrill of it" (14-17). Hughes explains that there's a thrill of violence, and how this invigorates him. It literally "lifts the hair" on the back of his hands and the reference to "pages" shows how he believes this violence has invigorated, or "thrill"ed, his writing.
On the other hand, right before this Hughes lines up how he believes this connects to Plath's writing. "Your journal pages. Your effort to cry words / Came apart in aired blood" (10, 11). Hughes explains that as it pertains to Plath's poetry, she is trying to harness the violence in her writing. But, being unable to harness it, results in...
Continuing this quotation from Hughes' writing, he ends the thought with the phrase "Of despair, terror, sheer fury" (line 13). This shows that since Plath is unable to harness the violence in her writing, it's slowly driving her to a sort of madness. Despair, terror, and sheer fury all together are a confusing set of emotions which would drive any sane person to be confused and unable to sort out their thoughts--therefore resulting in a madness.
Along these same lines, "Trophies" refers to "The Rorschach" in line 8. The Rorschach test is the inkblot psychological exams where a psychiatrist asks the patient to describe what they see represented within the inkblots. These exams are used to deduce underlying psychological disorders -- or, in the context of the poem, madness.
The way "Trophies" sets up Plath as trying to harness violence and thus resulting in madness is very similar to how Plath sets up this same dynamic in "Pursuit." In the third stanza, she matches up words that are seen as "feminine" with ones that are stereotypically seen as connected to "madness" in that they're very sneaky, lurking, and almost stalking in nature. Therefore, creating the picture that as Plath tries to harness this violence in her writing, she's thrust into the world of trying to balance the two. And, unable to do so, she is thrown into madness. 