# Fox Hunt Yarn explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by James McIntyre.

## What happens

A humorous tall tale about a fox hunt gone wrong, where the narrator's horse falls into a well and dies, and the narrator escapes by clinging to buzzards attracted by the carcass.

## Themes in this chapter

### Community and Social Gatherings

The yarn is a type of communal storytelling, a social activity where tall tales are shared for entertainment.

### Moral Lessons and Domestic Virtue

The tale ends with a moral lesson: the narrator is forever dissuaded from fox hunting, implying a caution against reckless pursuits.

## Key lines

> This my adventure is no hoax; I mounted horse to hunt a fox, The cunning beast got into cover, Hunting him we rode all over.

The narrator insists this true story begins with him riding a horse to chase a fox that hid, leading them to ride everywhere.

_Sets up the premise of the fox hunt._

> But my fine horse he stumbling fell Down to the bottom of the well, And thus the noble beast was slain.

The horse stumbled and fell into a well, dying from the fall.

_Key incident where the horse is lost._

> Around four of them I did cling, And made them fly aloft on wing. But they flew higher than I wanted, Though T was still quite undaunted; I first let one buzzard slip, Then another on downward trip, ’Till I arrived all safe and sound, Without a scratch on solid ground.

He grabbed four buzzards and forced them to fly upward, then released them one by one to descend safely to the ground.

_The fantastical escape method using buzzards._

> But now no man can ever coax Me to go hunting of a fox.

After this experience, no one can persuade him to go fox hunting again.

_Concluding moral of the story._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_12_se/chapters/fox-hunt-yarn
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_12_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_12_se/chapters