"In 'The Stag' Hughes seems to comment on man's relationships with nature" With reference to 'The Stag' and one other poem in the section discuss the poet's treatment of conflict between man and nature.

"In 'The Stag' Hughes seems to comment on man's relationships with nature" With reference to 'The Stag' and one other poem in the section discuss the poet's treatment of conflict between man and nature. The Stag was written by a poet named Ted Hughes and is similar to the poem Roe-Deer in many respects because they feature many similar ideas. The poem is about the distant relationship between humans and nature, in this case it is a Stag the represents the natural side and its actions compared to the humans and their actions. The whole story of the poem is portraying a negative image as it is about horsemen hunting the stag with hounds. The hunting of such a beautiful creature just shows us how cruel we are as a race and how unnecessary it is for us to be hunting such an animal and this poem helps us realise that this is going on all the time and it is just a reminder. The idea of the distant relationship is shown when it says "the stag loped through his favourite valley" tells us that he is the only person who is in that forest usually. Ted Hughes expresses part of his feeling as he says "pulled aside the camouflage of their terrible planet" this tells us that he sympathises with the stag and is disgusted at our behaviour. It is also interesting that the animals who have been brought into are world have also been turned barbaric, such as the hounds which have been taught to

  • Word count: 697
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare and contrast "Pike" by Ted Hughes with "Trout" by Heaney.

Compare and contrast "Pike" by Ted Hughes with "Trout" by Heaney. Both poets focus on different aspects of the fish's lives. Heaney focus's mainly on the sleek physicality of the trout and the fact that it is a guided missile, full of energy and this point reinstates the fact that it is very powerful, not dangerous or aggressive. It also contributes to the very militaristic style that the poem is written in due to the fact that Heaney had a violent upbringing in Ireland, which helps to bring in the notion that the trout is a missile or acts like a bullet being shot from a gun. Hughes focuses mainly on the pike's very sinister personality that it is born with and its aggressive nature towards all, even its own kind. So it is therefore not surprising that the pike is a natural born killer from the egg and as it is so aggressive it is invested with mythical qualities and is subsequently thought of as a prehistoric relic lurking in the legendary depths of England's freshwater ponds. So the poets see both fish with respect and admiration as both are sleek, quick, majestic and powerful. Let us now compare and contrast how Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney put across these points to us. We can see that 'Trout' is written in a far more abstract way than 'Pike' and contains a lot less detail about the trout's mannerisms and its everyday life. The only thing we know of the trout's

  • Word count: 1356
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Using two or three poems which you have read explore the ways in which the poets use their poetry as a means of confronting and challenging prejudice

Using two or three poems which you have read explore the ways in which the poets use their poetry as a means of confronting and challenging prejudice In the two poems, 'Telephone Conversation' and 'Dinner Guest-Me,' each poet uses their poetry as a means of confronting and challenging prejudice. In 'Telephone Conversation' by Wole Soyinka, a phone conversation takes place between an African man and a very artificial lady about renting out a room. When the lady finds out he is African she becomes very prejudiced and racist towards him. 'Dinner Guest-Me' by Langston Hughes is about a black man going to a dinner party where he is the only coloured person there, like he is the 'token black.' Anger and a sense of humour are shown in both of the poems. In 'Telephone Conversation' the African man is angry at the "peroxide blond" and is disgusted at her for being so rude and racist towards him, "HOW DARK? ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY DARK?" The capital letters emphasises the loudness in her voice, whereas, in Langston Hughes poem the other dinner guest are not being prejudiced to the only black dinner guest directly. Although they would ask him "the usual questions that come into white mind." Here they are set apart from him as a different race, "to be part of a Problem on Park Avenue at eight is not so bad." He's angry because he is still part of the Negro Problem even though he is with

  • Word count: 807
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." - Lord Acton.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." - Lord Acton. This is often true, especially when some of the most powerful rulers such as Hitler and Mussolini were bloodthirsty and merciless dictators. To many, Stalin was the epitome of a sadistic, power-hungry tyrant, in complete control. As it is often the powerless who want freedom, the world gets divided into the ones in power, the ones trying to gain power, and the ones rebelling against absolute power. Ted Hughes is a poet who uses animals to portray human emotions, such as greed and ambition. He personifies inanimate objects and emotions to bring across his message. In his poem 'Hawk Roosting', Hughes speaks in first person, the hawk as the speaker. His personal views, on many occasions clash with those of the hawk, which in my opinion is affective as it shows how the poet differs from his subject. In the first stanza, the poet very quickly takes us into the poem, by giving us an image of the hawk. It seems as though the speaker, the hawk, is indifferent about the reader's presence as he's asleep. The hawk appears to be in control, as he's higher than anyone and anything else, 'I sit in the top of the wood'. Also, he shows he feels he's invulnerable, and immortal, as if nothing can hurt him, 'with my eyes closed'. The first stanza introduces the reader to the

  • Word count: 1349
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Examine the ways in which Ted Hughes writes about nature.

8th April 2001 Examine the ways in which Ted Hughes writes about nature. For the purpose of this essay I have studied three poems written by Ted Hughes; "Roe Deer", "The Thought Fox" and "The Horses". They have a common theme of wild animals and the element of awe for them and their surrounding environment is evident in Hughes' writing. Hughes tries to look deep into the minds of animals and wants the reader to share in the same experience that he had. He shows this in the "Thought Fox" by using delicate and inspiring language such as, " delicately as the dark snow" he makes it seem so real that we feel that we were present at the moment he saw the fox. This is very similar in both "Roe-Deer" and "The Horses" along with the feeling that one of them is in the wrong place at the wrong time, "They had happened into my dimension". There is always a feeling of unease confirmed by the desolation of their meeting place; "Roe-Deer"-"snow lonely fields"; "The Horses"-"Not a leaf, not a bird" and finally " The thought fox"-"This midnight moment's forest". He always seems to believe that he is the one trespassing into their world, not the other way around. These occurrences help to distinguish between the normal and the abnormal, so that we too can acquire the same feelings for animals that Ted Hughes does. So helping us to envisage the wonder of the moment. Throughout "The

  • Word count: 1054
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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A Comparison Between the Poems Hawk Roosting and The Windhover

A Comparison Between the Poems Hawk Roosting and The Windhover The Poems Hawk Roosting and The Windhover are both about birds as their titles already suggest. Even though tey are of the same subject they have many differences and contrasts. One tells us about a bird who thinks allot of himself and is almost some kind of a show off. In the other hand, The Windhover tells us of a bird who is light and gentle passing a much better impression than the bird in the poem Hawk Roosting. In Hawk Roosting we seem to have a darker image of the bird while in the other one a much brighter and lighter image is passed. It is very interestin to see how the two authors mangaed to have so many ideais for the same subject and make two excellent poems. The poem Hawk Roosting is written from the point of view of the hawk, a bird of prey, is sittin roosting in a tree. He just observes all that is around him. He thinks allot of himself and he sees himself as the ultimate being of Creation. He thimks that all there is in the World was created for his benefit. He thinks he has the power to revolve the World. He also belives to have power over life and death. He thimks he has control of all that happens in the World and wishes to keep things like this. He thinks of himself as almost a Godly like figure. In the Windhover the Bird seems to be gentler than the one in Hawk Roosting. The poem is not

  • Word count: 579
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Work and Play & Hawk Roosting

English essays - Work and Play & Hawk Roosting Work and Play Subject: The subject of this poem is in the ironic title "work and play". The "work" represents the humans and the "play" represents the swallow. Stanza 1 tells us about the swallow, "Blue-dark knot of glittering voltage" this is a metaphor and an onomatopoeia, it describes the swallow to be very fast, "voltage". A "whiplash" swimmer" this represents the speed of the swallow, "whiplash" because when you travel very fast, your neck will move back. Also it is described as a "fish of the air" this suggests that like the fish swims perfectly in the water, the swallow fly's perfectly through the air. Ted Hughes represents the negative side, starting with "but", this shows there are two sides, a positive and a negative. "A serpent of cars", a serpent represented evil in the Garden of Eden, and now is represented as a long line of cars, i.e. traffic. "Slake" is a quench of first, this describes the day to be hot, "its fever in ocean" this tells us that the humans are going towards an area with lots of water, beach. "Will play and be idle or else it will bust", this also shows that they will play on the beach and be "idle" as not moving at all, this may be because the people are sun bathing. Stanza 2 starts with a positive approach, with the swallow in a shape of an arrow when it is flying " the barbed harpoon". "she

  • Word count: 351
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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"What are Ted Hughes' Ideas about poetry, and how have they been

"What are Ted Hughes' Ideas about poetry, and how have they been used in his poems, 'The Jaguar' and 'The Thought-Fox'?" Ted Hughes, was born in 1939 and died in 1989, he wrote two poems, The Jaguar and The Thought-Fox. These are the poems that I am discussing in my essay and also what his ideas are on the poems. He also specialises in nature poems and these are what we have also been studying. The Thought-Fox is quite a different poem. It wasn't written about the fox it was written about him writing about the fox (confusing I Know!!!). The Jaguar on the other hand, was about the animal and it was describing the animal, can you tell the difference and how he likes to differ his poems "You don't have to bother about commas or full stops or that sort of thing" to Ted punctuation is not important, but the senses are: " Just look at it, touch it, smell it, listen to it, turn yourself into it" as he believes senses are there to help you. If you write a poem completely different to another poet and you are worried about your work,/ Ted believes that you should not care about what other people have written it is your own work that matters and how you find it " Do not care how other people have written about this thing, this is the way you find it". With 'The Thought-Fox' he thinks that a fox comes and walks in front of him and sits down, so he gets this image in his head and

  • Word count: 652
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Pike by Ted Hughes

Dave Lang Folio assignment Choose a poem you studied recently which challenges the reader to view something familiar in a new and thought provoking way. Pike Ted Hughes Stanzas one to four of the poem are there to describe the Pike, its nature, what it looks like and it's destiny in nature as a predator. The poet, Ted Hughes, in writing this poem challenges the reader to view nature in a totally new perspective by exploring the power and violence in it by using one animal in river life, the Pike, since the Pike is the supreme species of fish in river life he uses it to full extend to show the power and violence of nature. Hughes starts the poem with "Pike, three inches long, perfect" using this as a start to describing the Pike, he begins to build up the Pike's image as a predator, always being a predator with no change required through evolution therefore using "perfect" as another way of saying that the pike was designed perfectly as a predator and will never need to change as it will always remain supreme in its habitat. "Pike in all parts, green tigering the gold" the use of the word "tigering" giving a comparison of the Pike to the Tiger, completely different creatures but in their own worlds they are just as deadly as each other, the Tiger being supreme in the jungle just as the Pike is supreme in the river. "Killers from the egg" using this Hughes re-enforces

  • Word count: 1285
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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“A pink wool knitted dress,” by Ted Hughes and “Sonnet XLIII” (43) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Love Poetry Coursework By Eithne Mc Crory. The two poems I have selected to compare and contrast are, "A pink wool knitted dress," by Ted Hughes and "Sonnet XLIII" (43) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The first poem I intend to analyse is, "A pink wool knitted dress." This poem is not written along conventional lines, since it does not employ the use of sonnet or stanzas of four lines. Indeed there are three lines in the first stanza while the fourth stanza could be a sonnet in itself as it consists of fourteen lines. All the other stanzas are of differing lengths as are the lengths of the lines. In terms of rhyme in many of the poems I have previously read the last word in each line often rhymes with the last word in the next line or the second next line. This sort of rhyming occurs in Barrett Browning Sonnet XLIII where the second and third lines rhyme as do the first and fourth. This pattern continues throughout the poem. Hughes writes in run on sentences, some of which carry on into the next line, in fact the style and structure of the poem reminds me more of a piece of prose than a poem. One might consider it to be reminiscent of Shakespeare's blank verse it could of course also be modern style free verse. This poem itself focuses on Hughes' wedding day. In the initial verses, he talks about himself, about the absence of his family, his best man who was the

  • Word count: 1344
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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