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Skunk Hour - Papers Online

Skunk Hour

by Robert Lowell and The Armadillo by Elizabeth Bishop are two closely related poems. Both share the theme of an animal carrying with it natural defenses, and the image of an isolated spectator. However, there is one important contrast between these poems: The Armadillo portrays a creature who cannot comprehend the events destroying the life about it, whereas the speaker in understands, possibly too well, the events affecting its life.
By using the skunk as a descriptive element for his character, Robert Lowell increases the distance between the character and the brief glimpse of society portrayed in the poem. Skunks, generally, are avoided by everyone because of their reputation ...

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his character as something akin to a stalker, illustrated in the following excerpt.

One dark night,

my Tudor Ford climbed the hill’s skull;

I watched for love-cars.

(Lowell 25-27)

Why would anyone be out alone, searching for lovers who do not desire intrusion? The

speaker answers this question in the second half of the stanza.

Lights turned down,

they lay together, hull to hull,

where the graveyard shelves on the town…

My mind’s not right.

(Lowell 27-30)

Here, the speaker admits his actions are wrong. Later in this paper, the fact that the speaker in Skunk Hour is lonely will become an important contrast to the character in The Armadillo.

At the end of the poem, Lowell contrasts as well as likens the character to the nocturnal skunk.

Nobody’s here –

only skunks, that search

in the moonlight for ...

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Skunk Hour. (2005, July 18). Retrieved January 6, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Skunk-Hour/30246

"Skunk Hour." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 18 Jul. 2005. Web. 6 Jan. 2026. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Skunk-Hour/30246>

"Skunk Hour." Essayworld.com. July 18, 2005. Accessed January 6, 2026. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Skunk-Hour/30246.

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 7/18/2005 09:49:01 AM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 819
Pages: 3

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