illustrating a close-up of a racehorse and jockey in the early 1900s, capturing the intense moment as they approach the finish line.

Do They Know? By Banjo Paterson

The Inner Experience of a Racehorse, Exploring Banjo Paterson’s Perspective-Taking in “Do They Know?”

Banjo Paterson’s poem “Do They Know?” offers a fascinating imaginative glimpse into a racehorse’s perspective during climactic moments at the track. Writing in the early 20th century, Paterson displays an intriguing empathy and openness to animal cognition through his lyrical anthropomorphism of horses.

The poem follows a horse’s experience from the strain of a tight race, to the agony of all-out exertion, to the seeming comprehension of victory cheers. Paterson’s vivid racing imagery places the reader directly alongside the thundering hooves fighting for the lead down the final straight. We vividly sense the “last atom” of effort exerted.

In the exhausted aftermath, Paterson movingly depicts details like the horse’s heaving sweat-soaked flanks. He suggests through subtle details that the creature seems to share the jockey’s awarenesses of both triumph and cost. The repeating refrain “Do you think they don’t know?” invites us to imagine, if only briefly, through the horse’s eyes.

While clearly shaped by artistic imagination, Paterson’s empathetic verse reflects emerging discussions in his era about animal intelligence and emotion. As one early Australian advocate for animals, Paterson’s willingness to adopt a horse’s perspective reveals a compassionate impulse toward other creatures.

The poem ultimately leaves the degree of animal awareness enticingly open rather than didactic. But Paterson artfully sparks contemplation about connections across species through adopting the horse’s voice. “Do They Know?” offers a poignant model for looking beyond assumed divides.

This poem utilizes vivid racetrack imagery and repetition to explore whether horses comprehend their triumphs and failures as keenly as humans. Paterson anthropomorphizes the horses, imagining their exertion and emotional state to raise philosophical questions about animal cognition.

The first stanza dramatically immerses us in a climactic moment of a race. The horses are visualized straining with “every last atom of weight” as the jockeys frantically whip them towards the finish line. Paterson emphasizes the intensity of this physical ordeal.

In the second stanza, the perspective shifts to the excited celebrations after a victory. But Paterson highlights the exhaustion and distress still imprinted on the victorious horses through details like sweat-soaked ears. He suggests their worn bodies indicate deep awareness of achieving success.

The final stanza has the horses walking down a lane of rapturous applause, seemingly responding to the praise. Paterson leaves ambiguous whether the horses truly grasp their accomplishment or simply react to the crowd’s energy.

The repeating refrain “Do you think they don’t know?” invites the reader to imagine the inner world of horses. Paterson implies that animals may experience emotions and triumphs more profoundly than humans assume. With insightful questioning and vivid animation of horses, he explores possibilities of animal sentience.

Do They Know?

Do they know? At the turn to the straight
Where the favourites fail,
And every last atom of weight
Is telling its tale;
As some grim old stayer hard-pressed
Runs true to his breed,
And with head just in front of the rest
Fights on in the lead;
When the jockeys are out with the whips,
With a furlong to go,
And the backers grow white to the lips—
Do you think they don’t know?

Do they know? As they come back to weigh
In a whirlwind of cheers,
Though the spurs have left marks of the fray,
Though the sweat on the ears
Gathers cold, and they sob with distress
As they roll up the track,
They know just as well their success
As the man on their back.
As they walk through a dense human lane
That sways to and fro,
And cheers them again and again,
Do you think they don’t know?

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