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,...
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