The metaphorical journey found in “The Writer” by Richard Wilbur and the experience described in “The Thinking Fox” by Ted Hughes show events in which a journey of discovery. Although their themes and metaphors are very different, many parallels exist between their use of animals and their creation of sensory images. In this way the reader discovers how the journey of life and the flight of a bird are similar to the adventures of a fox; we can hope to direct destiny, but we must let it take its natural course. “The Writer” begins with the speaker informing the audience that his daughter is “in the bow of the house” (1) where his “daughter is writing a story” (3) as “the windows are covered with lime” (2) .From the beginning of the poem, the speaker begins to provide an extended metaphor of the journey of life with the phrase “prow of the house” (1). Furthermore, the speaker continues this throughout the poem with phrases such as “Like a chain pulled up on a gunwale" (6) or "I wish her a lucky passage" (line 9) or "Beating a smooth course" (29). In addition to metaphor, the Wilbur depicts precise imagery and a symbol for the audience to experience. A example of imagery is found in the line "Where the light breaks in and the windows are moved by lime trees" (2). from the swaying lime trees. Another image created is that of two people anticipating the “starling” (19) to fly gently into the outside world as they watch the “elegant, wild, dark / and iridescent creature” (22-23) “helplessly.” from . . . through the crack of a door” (20). Finally, Wilbur uses the form of a small, fragile bird that tries, repeatedly, to fly out of an unknown room into the world. Because the speaker's daughter will have difficulties throughout her life because the situations are unfamiliar to her. Likewise, “The Thought Fox” establishes the physical setting very quickly; the speaker is a room where “something else is alive / besides the loneliness of the clock” (2-3) and where there is a “blank page” (4) where the speaker imagines a forest at midnight. In doing so, Ted Hughes begins to create a metaphor for darkness with the phrase “forest of the midnight moment.” The darkness found in this forest represents the unknown boundaries of the human imagination because the more one enters the darkness the further one goes “it is entering [into] solitude”.” (8).