Their “malevolent aged grin” coupled with “hooked clamp and fangs/Not to be changed at this date” conjure the image of a terrifying, emotionless killing machine with a permanent glum expression, that will not let go of its prey once it has sunk its teeth in. The “aged grin” gives the pike an appearance of inborn wisdom. “In ponds, under the heat-struck lily pads—”, the pike’s evil behaviour is demonstrated by its choice to hide in shadows under lily-pads. This associates the pike with darkness, a common factor amongst predatory creatures. “Of submarine delicacy and horror./A hundred feet long in their world.”
“Gloom of their stillness:”
“The gills kneading quietly, and the pectorals”
These show the pike as being very silent; able to sneak up and ambush their prey. These egotistical predators are much like the dangerous and beauteous submarine gliding silently through the water.
In the second section of the poem, stanza 5 – 6 and a half, a truly vivid illustration of the pike’s behaviour is demonstrated where we see that there were three pike in a tank who, although were being fed enough food(fry), started to eat each other. This is emphasised by “With a sag belly and the grin it was born with” which shows that the pike seems to enjoy and is proud of the fact that it has killed and eaten its brethren. Hughes uses this to show how horrifically uncaring and evil pike are, even towards their own kind; this is the first glimpse we have of the violent nature of the pike; yet this may not be a true glimpse of their nature but rather an evasive and illusory glimpse, caused by the pike being trapped in a tank .
In the third section, stanza 6 and a half – 7, the pike’s full-scale craving for violence is brought closer still to the reader. There is no longer a glass wall to protect us from the pike as in the previous section. Two large pike are caught and tied up to dry out in the sun. One of the pike is “jammed past its gills down the other’s gullet”. In order to prevent us from mistakenly assuming that the violence exhibited by the pike “kept behind glass” was a result of their captivity, Hughes establishes the presence of the same savagery manifested in the wild. This also shows desire for supremacy which could be interpreted as causing one pike to kill another in the only way it knows how, this is similar to human nature and shows that a pike is willing to step on anyone and anything that gets in the way of it becoming top of the food chain.
In the fourth section, stanza 8 – 11, we see how dangerous the pike have become, as the persona, who used to keep pet pike, is now frightened of them. We know this from “That past nightfall I dared not cast”, which shows his fear of what the pike might do to him if he couldn’t see them. This is emphasised by a human belief that with darkness evil becomes more powerful; in this case the evils of the pike. This last section also gives the pike a mythic quality “Pike too immense to stir, so immense and old”. It also produces an air of fear and suspense, which is shown through “Darkness beneath night’s darkness had freed, /That rose slowly towards me watching”. The suspenseful and fearful feelings, at the end, make the reader feel that, one of these monster pike could come up at any time and kill him.