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The thrust of the poem Horns is pain and death. The poet catalogues the misery of a person who is succumbing to AIDS. A plethora of ailments attack the victim relentlessly. Imagery has been  vastly employed to enhance the meaning of the poem through vivid mental pictures. The form and the structure of the poem have been aptly employed to bring out the ideas explored in the poem. Meaning is suggested by the sections and stanzas, with each section focusing on a different aspect of the subject matter.  The first section of the poem expounds extensively on the extended metaphor of “horns” while the second one focuses on other metaphors that describe various health conditions associated with AIDS.  Shifting the attention from the specific signs and symptoms of the disease to the metaphor of a “warrior”, the poet manages to create strong images of the victim. In the fourth section, the poet resumes the inventory of the ailments affecting an AIDS victim.The fi...