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What kind of understanding is there between the horse and the speaker of the poem?

There seems to be a pretty deep level of understanding between the speaker of the poem and his horse.  It's likely that they spend so much time together, typically in the same familiar places, that they both know the routine so well that they really have to communicate relatively little in order to do what they need to do.  But now, in this poem, the speaker says, "My little horse must think it queer / To stop without a farmhouse near" (lines 5-6).  They have made a stop that is off their beaten path, in the woods, not where they typically stop.  The narrator knows his horse so well that he anticipates the horse's response to straying from their routine.  Then, when the horse shakes his head, the narrator attributes this to the horse's confusion about the unexpected stop.  The narrator says, "He gives his harness bells a shake / To ask if there is some mistake."  The speaker somewhat personifies the horse, suggesting that he is asking the speaker a question, and so this seems to indicate a high level of understanding, or at least a close bond, between narrator and horse.

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