Write a short note on the sequence of images used by the speaker to describe the fox.

After reading and analyzing "The Thought-Fox," it's easy to see why the image of a fox emerging from the edge of a dark forest is similar to an idea developing and surfacing from the depths of a writer's mind. The fox's manner—sneaky, clever, bold— echoes the way which an inspiration can suddenly strike, while the forest's setting—dark, dense, deep—is much like a writer's imagination.

Towards the end of the poem, the speaker hones in on the fox's eye, likening its "widening deepening greenness" to the sudden poetic abundance the fox's image provokes. The slow, steady pace established in the first lines continues through the end of stanza 5, then rapidly accelerates, echoing the "sudden sharp hot stink of fox" which strikes the speaker as the fox is merely "Coming about its own business." By stressing the image of the eye with several adjectives and adverbs, the speaker draws out this moment, as though searching for the right combination of words to spark the poem he wishes to write. Additionally, the fox's two meanings converge in the first two lines of stanza 6: the fox is both animal and idea, entering the "dark hole" of the speaker's head.