A Review of the Work and Play poem By Ted Hughes

A Review of the Work and Play poem By Ted Hughes This poem is about a comparison between a swallow and human beings that are on a day trip. The swallow, is at work in the poem and is feeling content. The humans, however, are supposed to be relaxing and having fun, but they feel miserable instead. With this, there is irony here with the title, as the swallow is working but having fun. The writer, I feel, is being biased in his poem. He tends to be in favour of the swallow. The poem is describing the people as 'polluting' the environment. The message of the poem is that we shouldn't destroy our environment and our health by 'baking' ourselves under the sun. The poem talks about the tourists arriving and then leaving unhappily. The writer is also describing the swallow's day, what it does to entertain itself and returning to its home at night. The poem is split into four, unequal stanzas. The first three stanzas, start off with a description of the swallow and then humans. The last stanza, however, starts off with a description of the humans and then the swallow. This makes us stop, think and more eager to finish the poem, as it's a change of pattern. The writer, perhaps wants to leave the reader with a positive and happy image rather than a negative and discomforting image. In the first three stanzas, the end of the two longest lines rhyme, forming a sort of rhyming couplet,

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  • Word count: 1854
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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