EXAMINATION AT THE WOMB DOOR

Ted Hughes

1. Explain the use of the term “womb-door”.

The word “womb door” at first seems to have very sexual connotations. The voice of God’s nightmare gestates and begins to acquire a physical state. But before it is born, there is yet a trial that the embryo has to go through. This is the embryo’s examination at the womb door, a final assessment that the crow must undergo before being born and before entering the world. Womb door signifies the point of crossing into the physical world- a gate where all souls shall gather before they step into life. In my opinion, examination at womb door reminds me of the promise that all souls make to God before coming into the world that He- God is their creator and they shall return to Him. In our poem, however, the crow is a clever embryo and the examination that follows is a unique one.

2. What effect is created by the repetition of the word “Death”?

There is a lot of emphasis on the word Death. This emphasis is brought out by putting the word in italics, placing it a few spaces away from the normal sentence and by making it the only answer that the Crow gives throughout the poem. It is repeated sixteen times by the Crow emphasizing that Death is indeed the ultimate reality of life. The time and place of our death is decided even before we are born and that, in a way, makes death a stronger aspect than life itself. It also gives a very ominous- death, the ultimate fear of all mankind, and sacrilegious tone to the poem- the crow, a small bird, being insolent in front of God by insisting that it is owned by Death (Who owns these scrawny little feet? Death. Who owns these unspeakable guts? Death.) and hence suggesting that God’s nightmare (the voice-hand from which the figure of crow gestated) had been Death, thus, creating a very blasphemous implication.

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3. Based on Hughes’s own opinion regarding the examiner, comment on the type of questions being asked.

God is curious to see what the voice-hand will ferment and holds an examination at the womb door- before it is to be born. Now the examiner being God, the tone of the questions is very authoritative which I think is deliberate on the part of the poet in order to establish God’s authority. The questions are short, precise and to-the-point. There are a lot of Wh- questions which usually demand a short one worded response. The use of words like scrawny, ...

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