The leitmotif of ‘swifts apart from the description of the birds themselves is the reminder of the cycle of life, the arrival of the swifts reminds Hughes of the changing of the season from spring which is a time of birth, to summer, to winter and the inescapable death that not only swifts must go through but all living things. The phrase “They’ve made it again, /Which means the globe’s still working, the Creation’s/Still waking refreshed…” adds a sense of Christianity to the otherwise violent imagery of the birds, the cycle of life and the rule of survival of the fittest. The tone of the poem for the most part is a balance between excitement and haste. Hughes captures the speed in which the swifts move and dart in and out of sight in the use of short, broken lines, many lines run into each other without punctuation giving the effect of fast, perpetual motion. Furthermore the repetitions of “here they are again” and “gone” throughout the poem give it a breathless quality. The second half of the poem (from the sixth stanza) is more subdued with a sense of loss as shown in the line “Not ours anymore…. so now they shun us”. Furthermore whilst Hughes still focuses on the movements of the birds, the speed, the ‘controlled scream of skid’ is now contrasted in this part of the poem with the birds ‘clipping the doorway’ suggesting the loss of control.
Hughes whose main aim is capturing the movement and behaviour of swifts uses imagery to its full effect in describing the swifts. He repeatedly uses the metaphor likening the birds to fighter pilots for example how the birds like fighter planes “Power-thrust to left, then to right, then flicker they/ Tilt into a slide”. Also Hughes has carefully chosen his language in describing the birds, he refers to their ‘balsa death’, balsa being the wood used for model aircraft (furthering the image of the birds being like airplanes). Such imagery and words such as ‘Shrapnel-scatter terror’ and ‘errupting’, which brings to mind images of an exploding bomb, add to a vision of violence in the birds. Furthermore Hughes describes the birds as ‘international mobsters’ and ‘moustached goblin savage’ adding to the violent imagery. However, there is throughout a contradictory quality to the swifts, which Hughes uses throughout. As well as making them sound powerful and dangerous, Hughes also draws attention to their delicacy in flight, as they ‘tremble’, ‘flicker’ and are ‘Gnat-whisp frail’. In a striking construction, Hughes juxtapose (sets together as a contrast) extremes of weight and lightness, “leaden velocity and their butterfly lightness’ this adds transience. Another aspect, which Hughes captures, is the swifts’ cry- a high-pitched sound almost like a scream. He has combined their sound to their movements, so it seem as if the birds are somehow faster than their sounds they ‘materialise at the tip of a ling scream’. The repetition of the word ‘scream’ is reminiscent of an echo and the use of it at the end adds closure and circularity to the poem.
In addition to these metaphors, Hughes chooses an interesting composition of words. For example when he describes an injured young bird he not only emphasizes its wild and awe-inspiring qualities in referring to it as a ‘goblin savage’ but also call it ‘my little Apollo’. Apollo within Greek mythology was the sun gods and father to all the gods, and therefore suggests that he worships this swift like a little god. Furthermore Hughes employs an obscure and opaque vocabulary to describe the flight of birds, “Veer on the hard air, toss up over the roof’ which adds an almost breathless quality to the poem.
As has been said, formal rhyme does not feature within this poem. Indeed like the erratic line length the rhythmic pattern emulates the darting movements of swifts. Hughes uses alliteration also to mimic the birds for example when describing a young swifts attempts to fly it’s ‘first fling’, nearly flying ‘ misfit which ‘flopped’ in the yard- the repetition of the soft ‘f’, ‘l’ and ‘s’ sounds allows the reader to create an aural image of the birds fluttering wings as well as it ‘floundering’.
In conclusion, Hughes has captured within this poem the appearance, movement and behaviour of swifts through straight forward, plain, punchy syntax, bold statements without adornment, imagery, irregular and erratic line length (the form in which the poem is written), rhyme, rhythm and sound effects.
