Ted Hughes’ Full Moon and Little Frieda: Critique and Analysis

This is rightly one of Hughes’s most popular poems and he has called it a favorite one of his poetry. The beauty and aptness of its movement could
never have been predicted from most of the poems in The Hawk in the Rain—even The Thought-Fox’ is mechanical in comparison. It is rare to find
such freedom of line accompanied by such appropriateness and inevitability, so that it seems to have a form as tight as a sonnet—the whole
evening in one long line, the listening child who is the focus of it in a balancing short one; the ‘mirror’ poised between the water of which it is
composed and the star that it reflects; the herd of cows in a long, lazy line that nevertheless doesn’t fall apart.
The humor that belongs to the wonder is there throughout: in ‘tempt’; in the cows being communally the river and individually the boulders that
impede its progress; and above all in the final two lines, where something of the artist’s wonder at the life of his work, the moon’s ancient divinity,
the child’s suddenness and wholeness of attention, combine in a delicacy of suggestion that really does defy analysis. But what the poem’s subtext
reveals is the innocence of the Frieda contrasted with the experience of her father as the very first lines form the keynote:
“A cool small evening shrunk to a dog bark and the clank of a bucket –
And you listening.
A spider’s web, tense for the dew’s touch”
The evening has shrunk not only because the light is failing but also because, as it does so, time seems to slow down, as it approaches that crucial
moment of nightfall, dewfall, the first tremor of the first star. And the poet is aware that his daughter is the hand; pointing to that moment because
she is utterly open, without defenses, without distracting consciousness of past and future, to the scene, her fine web of senses perfectly tuned to
it, tense as a spider’s web, brimming as a lifted pail. The cows, too, are part of the scene, the condensation from their ‘warm wreaths of breath’
falling like dew on the hedges, their udders brimming like the pail of water, their blood like a river flowing darkly through, bringing fertility, their
bony haunches like boulders ballasting the moment, balancing its fragility and delicacy with permanence and solidity. Perhaps it needs the child to
register and hold all this because the poet cannot open himself, cannot jettison his knowledge of past and future, his knowledge that blood can be
spilled as easily as milk and run in rivers outside the body, that boulders in a river are dangerous, that darkness is dangerous, that the moon is a
fickle murderous goddess. The poem as we have it holds all this at bay, submerges all darker knowledge which might disturb the perfect harmony of
man and nature the child experiences.
“Moon!’ you cry suddenly, ‘Moon! Moon!’
The moon has stepped back like an artist gazing amazed at a work
That points at him amazed”
The persona of “Full Moon and Little Frieda” views the child as a “mirror,” a brimming pail of offering, who gazes at the moon, the largest reflecting
object in the cosmos available to the naked eye. The resulting astonishment at the recognition of an identity of mirroring artworks is very striking
and describes another experience of the undifferentiated original essence of the cosmos, at times called by Buddhist poets the “full moon of
suchness.” When little Frieda speaks the word “moon,” one of the first words she ever articulated as a toddler, subject and object, self and
environment merge in ecstatic recognition of self-in-other, in the clarity of spotless, mutually reflecting mirrors. The cows that loop the hedges
“with their warm wreaths of breath” earlier in the poem convey an almost nativity-scene sense of the purity and supportiveness of a benign nature
in attendance. The cows, sacred in Oriental symbology as representations of the plenitude of creation, are an apt background for Frieda’s offering of
self as a brimming pail of youthful purity to an equally pure moonlight. In ‘Full Moon and Little Frieda’, for the first time, there is a moment of
harmony.
The poem testifies in its delicacy of utterance, its utterly fresh sense of wonder, to the possibility of knowing ‘the redeemed life of joy’ in normal
daily experience, when, with an unspectacular access of grace, the elements of a scene – human, animal, domestic, rural, cosmic – suddenly cohere
to express a plenitude, all the ‘malicious negatives’ miraculously melted away. There is no self-consciousness to close her, she points at the moon
with an amazement the moon can only reciprocate, like an artist whose work has come to life or perfectly reflects the life of its creator who has
created innocent and experience at the same time. But the conflict goes hand in hand where The river of blood, can actually be a river, but he’s
personifying this river into the lives of himself and Frieda , and the dark past they’ve since had to overcome (Sylvia’s suicide) . So he’s saying how
dangerous it is, with boulders and blood. But then he says it’s balancing unspilled milk, saying that for this moment, this peaceful moment in the
country, life is balanced, it’s calm. Their bond (which must be strong after withstanding everything the two have gone through) is so great, and the
moment that they’re in is so beautiful, that even the moon stood back in awe. The poem is really picturesque and imagist along with the theme of
masculinity:
“A pail lifted, still and brimming—mirror
To tempt a first star to a tremor”
The theme of masculinity versus femininity is continued with some of the imagery in Full Moon and Little Frieda. For example, the pail full of water
is described as a “mirror”, an object which usually has feminine connotations. The full phrase has possible religious implications -“mirror/ To tempt
a first star to tremor.” The specific use of the word “tempt” could suggest the temptation of Eve in The Bible. With the religious and nature imagery
in both poems, this is not surprising. As Eve arguably caused the rift between mankind and nature, feminists would undoubtedly argue that Hughes
is trying to blame women for this rift. However, I believe that Hughes is presenting us with the repair of the relationship between mankind and
nature.
I think this is a crucial poem in the Hughes’ canon – one of his most arresting, strange, and moving. Central to Hughes’ poetic vision is the
extraordinary strangeness, otherness, of nature, and the miracle of our complex response to it. And this poem presents that most directly. This is a
tremendous moment, because Little Frieda is either responding to the moon or to the cows, and there’s no way of telling which. She’s just giving a
response so human, so innocent, so touching, that it transforms everything, tying together the earth and the heavens, instinctively, naturally and
miraculously. Frieda’s cry transforms and fulfils the whole scene. It is a miracle, a true miracle, by which humanity understands, recognizes and
blesses this strange nature which is otherwise so alien.

Discuss Hughes’ use of Dreams and occult Symbolism

Ted Hughes is a highly symbolic and mythical poet who dreams and animal imagery have been traced with symbolic notes. Almost each and every
thing mentioned in Ted’s poetry is symbolic. A symbol is an object which stands for something else as Dove symbolizes Peace. Similarly, Blake’s tiger
symbolizes creative energy; Shelley’s wind symbolizes inspiration; Ted Hughes’s Hawk symbolizes terrible destructiveness at the heart of nature.
There is a difference between an image and symbol, the former evokes a picture and the latter has wide range of connotations. Hughes’ poetry
permeates with animal imagery which serves as a symbolic purpose. Ted’s poem ‘Thought-Fox’ is the best example of symbol.
“I imagine the midnight moments’ forest:
Something else is alive
Beside the clock’s loneliness”
The Thought-Fox describes, in an indirect or oblique manner, the process by which a poem gets written. What a poet needs to write a poem is
inspiration. A poet waits for the onrush of an idea through his brain. And, of course, he also needs solitude (loneliness) and silence around him.
Solitude and silence are, however, only contributory circumstances. They constitute a favourable environment, while the poem itself comes out of
the poet’s head which has been invaded, as it were, by an idea or thought. The idea or thought takes shape in his head like a fox entering a dark
forest and then coming out of it suddenly. The fox embodies the thought which a poet expresses in his poem. The fox here serves as a symbol.
Hughes’s sensibility is pagan in the original sense; and his poetry is as suggestive of the lair as it is of the library. He feels greatly attracted by
ancient mythologies, Oriental as well as Western, though he makes use of those ancient myths for his own purpose. He certainly does not believe
literally in the ancient myths, but he finds a great value in them and, throughout his poetry, tries to show his readers where the value of these
ancient myths lies.
“As if we flew slowly, their formations
Lifting us toward some dazzle of blessing”
As a poet, Hughes believes that he must make “secret flights” to go back in time in order to be able to probe his own mind through his knowledge of
the past consciousness of the human race. He believes that the principal method of making such secret flights is through dreams which provide an
insight into the unconscious mind and which have a collective meaning when they have mythical contents. Hughes invests his poem with a dream-
like quality because dreams reveal the unconscious mind just as the shamanistic procedures do that. The Thought-Fox is a dream-like poem, a
reverie on a cold winter’s night. The same is the case with the poem called ‘That Morning’. What is even more remarkable is his ability to adjust his
style to the purpose. Sometimes, as in “The Thought-Fox” he can convey his meaning and tone through the use of diction. At other times, he uses
animals as symbols; but his symbols are occult and perceived only through senses. This occult symbolism is pronounced in the following lines:
The subjects he prefers to write on are, however, several: man in relation to the animal world, man and nature, war and death. Hughes’s animal
poems are among the best in his work, and among the finest in the whole range of English poetry. The imagery in these poems has its own appeal.
The imagery in these poems is at once graphic and realistic; and the language which Hughes has employed in describing the various animals shows a
striking originality and felicity. The emphasis in this imagery is on the vitality or energy of the animals concerned and also on the violence, the
fierceness, and the cruelty of most of those animals. The Thought-Fox is also partly an animal poem, in which the poet’s inspiration is compared to
a fox making a sudden and silent entry into his head. In this case, instinct replaces intellect. In the poem ‘Chaucer’ Ted says:
“You declaimed Chaucer
To a field of cows”
Where the image of ‘cow’ symbolizes the so-called critics and those scholastic critics whose only purpose is to find faults with or find pleasurism in
literature. The cows have similar resemblance to the Hawk. In the poem ‘Hawk Roosting’ the poet does not praise the hawk so much as he
denigrates man by comparison. The hawk is here seen as vastly superior to man who is unable to accept Nature for what it is and, instead, tries to
tame it by giving it philosophical names. Elsewhere, cows are the symbol of nature and the purity one may wish to enjoy:
“Cows are going home in the lane there, looping the hedges with their warm wreaths of breath”
Thus, he uses images, metaphors and realistic imagery for a symbolic purpose; but purpose seems to be more and more occult. Alliteration and
syntax structure are one of the devices for Ted to achieve the purpose. The paradoxical situations are in the hawk are also vividly presented.
Hughes’s technique of writing poems includes one very striking and highly commendable quality which is to be found in almost every poem that he
wrote. This quality is the structural unity of his poems. Almost every poem by him is well-knit, compact, and self-sufficient as the poems discussed
above. Hughes has the ability to capture the reality of things in words; and he has displayed this ability in his poem ‘The Though-Fox’ and ‘Full
Moon and Little Frieda’.
Conclusively, it is established that Ted Hughes’ is a highly symbolic poet who uses an individual style and technique. Although, his symbols are
occult, yet they are unique and cinematic. Especially, the symbolic use of Hawk and that of Fox gets so much stamped on the mind of the reader
that it is difficult to forget it. No wonder that his poetry, like the poetry of every modern poet, is a tough nut to crack, because the modern poet
tends to be more subtle and more elusive in the expression of his ideas than the traditional poet (like Thomas Hardy). But otherwise too, poets are
the seers, sages, philosophers, and Magi of the world, and their techniques of expression, like their modes of thought, are often complex, involved,
intricate, and sometimes even baffling and bewildering. In any case, Hughes’s work has considerably enriched English poetry and enlarged its scope
and its bounds

Discuss the major themes and subject matter of Ted Hughes’ poetry
Ted Hughes is a very important modern British poet. As a poet, he commands full individual technical superiority over most of his contemporaries.
He understands modern sensibility and contemporary issues; but writes in his own perspective. He creates before us worlds which delight and
instruct us and elevate us emotionally, intellectually and esthetically. Unlike some modern poets so believe that a poem should not mean but be,
Ted Hughes is profoundly concerned with the subject matter of his poetry.
The major theme of his poetry is of course man, that is, the question of human existence, man’s relation with the universe, with the natural world
and with his own inner self. He is awfully serious about this last aspect of the problem of being, namely, the problem of human consciousness. His
subjects range from animals, landscapes, war; the problem posed by the inner world of modern man, to the philosophical and metaphysical queries
about the status of man in this universe. His moods and methods of presentation reveal a similar variety. Ted Hughes says about his vigor and
vitality (usually associated with violence):
“Any form of violence—any form of vehement activity-invokes the bigger energy. To accept the energy, and find method of turning it
to good. The old method is the only one. My poems are not about violence but vitality. Animals are not violent; they are so much more completely
controlled than me”
The main theme in his poetry is this energy which has to be turned into a positive force. Violence is misunderstood in his poetry. Most of Hughes’s
poetry can be said to be an attempt to negotiate with these energies as we see his argument in the case of Hawk. This poem is often criticized on
the ground that the hawk is a mouthpiece of fascism. What is forgotten, however, is Hughes’s assertion that the Hawk symbolizes “Nature
thinking.” Secondly, the point of view in this poem is the hawks; that is to say, the hawk is as mortal and part of creation as any other creature,
violent or timid. Right from his childhood, Ted Hughes has been interested in animals. When his parents lived in the Calder valley, Ted Hughes had
a chance to see the world of the animals from close quarters. Hughes learnt the first lesson that animals were by and large victims. The wild world
of the animals was at the mercy of the ordered human world. Yet, as Hughes realized and emphasized in his poetry, the human world was
fascinated by the world of the animals because it had pushed into the unconscious what the animal world still possessed: vat, untapped energies.
As depicted in ‘That Morning’:
“Two gold bears came down and swam like men…
Eating pierced salmon off their talons”
Here, the untamed natural impulses have been beautifully externalized as the two bears representing the two visitors to the lake. He writes
violence chiefly of savage animals, but violence also in human nature. Indeed, violence is one of the dominant themes in Hughes’s poetry; and for
this reason he has often been regarded as a poet of violence. But these poems of violence by Hughes are certainly genuine poetry; and we certainly
enjoy reading them. And it is not only the sadistic persons among us who would appreciate these poems. Even the normal reader can find a certain
degree of pleasure in them, especially because they are perfectly realistic, and very vivid, in their depiction of brutality and cruelty. But not violence
alone but treats nature in a unique way as in:
“A cool small evening shrunk to a dog bark and
the clank of a bucket –”
Nature is one of the most prevalent scenes in his poetry. In a way Hughes’s poetry continues the tradition of nature poetry. But unlike Wordsworth
who found Nature a “nurse, guide and guardian,” and Tennyson who found Nature “red in tooth and Claw” Hughes tries to take both the
Wordsworthian and Tennyson approaches to Nature. In poems like “Full Moon and Little Frieda” Hughes can describe Nature to continue the
Wordsworthian tradition, but in poems like “Hawk Roosting” the “That Morning” Hughes recognizes the powerful, vital, violent and predacious
Nature without commenting on it. It doesn’t mean that he copies their style. One of the causes underlying Hughes’s greatness as a modern poet is
his maturity and originality of style. Hughes has experimented with several different styles, ranging from the Wordsworthian and ‘their
metaphysical to that of the modern East European poets. In each case, he has made the style his own as in ‘Thought-Fox’.
“The window is starless still; the clock ticks,
The page is printed”
He can convey his meaning and tone through the use of diction. As in the above extract, as soon as the thought-fox springs into action, the vowels
are short: “brilliantly, concentratedly.” The action reaches its climax in the last line which is virtually monosyllabic: “And the page is printed.” The
poem thus shows a fine blending of vowels and consonants so as to provide a fusion of sense and sound. At other times, he uses animals as
symbols. In each case, there is a remarkable mastery over the medium, whether it is to depict a scene, portray an animal, tell a story, or present a
one-sided vision as that of Hawk. Even the theme of violence is handled with the lexical entities. Ted Hughes is primarily concerned with material
reality not simply the reality of a superficial urbanity but the one that governs larger questions of life and death, Nature and the animal world, and
above all, the inner world of man as in ‘Full Moon and Little Frieda’:
“A dark river of blood, many boulders,
Balancing unspilled milk”
Instead of shutting his eyes to the metaphysical and spiritual questions about life, Hughes tries to go to their bottom. He brings round that blood
can be spilled as mercilessly as milk and water. The reality is depicted in the ‘boulders’ troubles of life. Like Blake he shows a fourfold vision which
progresses from knowledge of the surfaces seen from a singular and therefore one-sided perspectives to the mature philosophic perspective which
goes to the heart of the matter. He finds a close kinship between the ambivalent but powerful forces within man and the inscrutable and terrible
working of the world of Nature. Equally remarkable is the fact that Hughes has treated of many modern concerns, like war and violence, with an
awareness which is lacking in many of his contemporary poets. His poetry evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in a specific
emotional response through language that he chooses and arranges for its meaning, sound, rhythm and a purpose.

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Anylisis by little farida and moon
The change of atmosphere in the poem Full Moon and Little Frieda is controlled by Ted Hughes to create a dramatic atmosphere. With carefully
chosen words, Hughes builds up tension and brings it up to climax.
Tension is built up as a foundation for the astonishing ambience later in the poem. By closely describing stationary, unnoticeable things, the poet is
able to create the suspense which helps to amplify the climax. A spider’s web is “tense for the dew’s touch” which presents the stillness of life and
gives an idea that the environment is very shrunken up as if in anticipation for a shock. The imagery of a pail full of water adds to the idea of
anticipation that it is “still and brimming” which portrays the expectation of an event about to happen. A pail is used well as imagery because when
the water is full up to the brim, the water toppling perfectly visualizes the tense climate of the poem. Also the “mirror” suggests stillness. A
“tremor” is all a pail needs to tip out its content and thus foreshadows some action. Moreover, the help of the repetition of “A” in the beginning of
the sentences, the listing tone embellishes tension. In the first two stanzas of the poem the build-up of tension is clearly noticeable.
While the previous stanzas were devoted to creating a strained mood, the third stanza reveals a completely different scene and yet
perfects the building of the most intensified atmosphere. “Cows going home” insinuates a normal routine, a shot of an everyday life and that
everything is normal despite all the tension that has been built up. The “lane” suggests an un-spoilt “pail” because lanes connote evenness and
uniformity which contrasts to the spilling of water. The uniformity is emphasized by “balancing un-spilled milk”, careful not to spill and break order.
Moreover, the sameness is exemplified by a metaphor of “warm wreaths of breath” in which the wreaths connote evenness and arrangement. Also
the alliteration of “warm wreaths” holds some significance as it is a soft pronunciation and does not have any accents. This reinforces the idea of
tranquility which is an anticlimax to amplify the actual climax of the poem. While the climax is magnificent, grand and stunning, the anticlimax
holds values for its antonymic behaviour. A “dark” atmosphere is adopted to hide what is coming shortly, the climax, and is given a sinister tone to
add to that effect. The “dark river of blood” insinuates hardship and ominousness which is supported by “many boulders” to add to the idea of
hardship. However, these boulders can be seen differently as stepping stones to help cross the “dark river of blood”. This ambiguity is used nicely to
create a confusing, chaotic atmosphere which will be broken heroically. Furthermore, the whole stanza is a case of enjambment; reading the lines
separately will give different meanings aforementioned, and reading it as a whole gives a contrasting idea. On seeing the stanza as one sentence, it
is deducible that this stanza denotes Hughes’ rough past. Although Hughes went through various hardships and suffering, he managed to balance
the “milk” and be with his daughter. Therefore, figuratively the “milk” could be his daughter which is an example of metonymy. Would he have spilt
it on his course, he wouldn’t have his daughter with him at the point of writing. Hughes creates the most intense anticlimax before the pinnacle of
the poem.
In contrast to the third stanza, the fourth stanza is the site of climax. This shock which the poet has to present is helped with the use of several
punctuations and words. “Moon” is repeated three times to emphasize the presence and each is followed by exclamation marks to supplement the
unexpected action. The word “suddenly” adds to the shocking effect. Simile is used to create a pertinent imagery to describe the shock “like an
artist gazing amazed at a work” which depicts the surprise. This surprise is because of the fact that the little Frieda is so innocent and pure such that
she cries out “moon” as if it was a scientific breakthrough. It is almost as if the moon is jealous of her purity, because moon itself connotes purity
and is quite taken back to find a more innocent person which is suggested by the repetition of “amazed” which shows the extreme consternation of
the moon. The last stanza finishes off the poem without proper ending to the climax by which creates a reverberation of the climax and also leaves
an ambiguous notion. With the uses of exclamations, repetitions and simile, the climax is successfully managed to finish the poem without
dissatisfaction.
Hughes creates the astonishing climax by focusing on the anticlimax which is built up from the beginning, which in the end builds up the climax
itself. By closely describing objects linked with movement and intensifying the moment just before the climax, the poet built up tension and used it
effectively to hit the climax with full power.
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Concepts of Nature in Ted Hughes’ poems "Hawk Roosting" and "February 17th"
To call Ted Hughes (1930-1998) a nature poet, should not be considered pejorative. It simply means that nature is a
frequent subject in his poetry. However, while a great many of his predecessors expressed nature as the idyllic,
romantic, and peaceful opposite of a denatured and technological world, Hughes highlighted the darker and more
realistic aspects of nature by putting its murderousness in the foreground. Thus, the recognition of violence and
aggression in nature became one of Hughes’ dominant themes in numerous of his poems. Yet, looking at his work, we
can state a significant change when it comes to describing nature. With Terry Gifford’s analysis of Hughes’s poetry in
mind, two different concepts of nature can be traced which may be called ‘anti-pastoral’ and ‘post-pastoral’ (Gifford
1994: 131pp). While a lot of his early works reveal a militant opposition to any Arcadian descriptions of nature, Hughes
later on creates his post-pastoral poetry in which he reconnects ‘our own natural energies with those at work in the
external natural world’ (Gifford 1994: 129). Such classification of poetry as suggested by Gifford should not be an end
in itself; instead, it ought to be relevant to all contemporary readers who take an interest in clarifying for themselves
‘which writing is likely to raise the most useful questions for our time’ (Gifford 2012: 69).
In the following, I will devote myself to Terry Gifford’s classification of Ted Hughes’s poetry and illustrate whether or
not it can be regarded as appropriate when it comes to the poet’s concept of nature. In order not to remain in pure
theory, I will concentrate on Hughes’ poems Hawk Roosting and February 17th which can be referred to as palpable
examples either of Hughes’ anti-pastoral or post-pastoral reference to nature. For a better understanding, I will
initially define the terms ‘anti-pastoral’ and ‘post-pastoral’ as used and understood by Gifford, before I will prove them
in the concepts in Hawk Roosting and February 17th by also clarifying the different effect that Hughes’ approaches to
nature necessarily have on the reader. At the end, I will come to a conclusion in which I briefly state the results of my
investigation.
Definitions of terms and concepts

Before using the perceptions ‘anti-pastoral’ and ‘post-pastoral’ in his essay, these terms ought to be defined, initially. It
is clearly apparent in the first place that both terms are used to mark, more or less, a strong opposition to poetry that is
referred to as ‘pastoral’. Pastoral writings usually represent an idealised, often nostalgic, and mysti-eyed image of
reality (Gifford 2012: 49-59) by using illusions or romanticisations in order to expose the best sides only of (life in)
nature and by concealing its brutality and its arbitrariness (Williams 1973: 30). In this way, pastoral concepts aim at
making the ‘Industrial Man [look] away from technological Wasteland to an older and better world’ (Barrell and Bull
1974: 423).
While such pastoral concepts distort the historical, economic, and organic tensions between humans and nature
(Gifford 1994: 130), the ‘anti-pastoral’ way of relating to nature is marked by the correction of any idealisation ‘by
presenting counter evidence that emphasises the opposite features in a gritty realism’ (Gifford 2012: 59).
Consequently, the characteristics of anti-pastoral literature is bound to be summed up as perfectly the opposite of
those of the pastoral: Anti-pastoral authors depict an unidealised and unattractive image of nature by stressing
tensions, disorder, hasrshness, and inequalities in the natural world (Gifford 2012: 60). Nature ceases to be the idyllic
and romantic counterpart of the modern and technological life and is displayed as a brutal environment where merely
the fittest can survive.
In 1994, Terry Gifford offered the term ‘post-pastoral’ for writings about nature that outflank the subdivision into
pastoral and anti-pastoral (Gifford 1994: 134-140; (Gifford 2012: 61-68). Initially, he related the term solely to Ted
Hughes’ poetry, but later on he also applied it to different kinds of literature. Gifford’s alternative term to Leo Marx’s
‘complex pastoral’ (Marx 1964) can be traced in writings which feature a) tensions between pastoral and anti-pastoral
elements showing a dynamic process in nature; b) the contradiction between divineness and intraworldliness as
confrontation between all beings as animals and gods at the same time; c) the direct responsibility for the
management of nature; d) the fact that outer processes in nature reflect inner processes of humans and culture; and e)
the interchangeability of images which means that animal life, culture, human life, landscape and weather are all parts
of an interactive whole that can be expressed by interchanging images (Gifford 1994: 134-140).
Even though Terry Gifford admits that rarely all aspects of anti-pastoral or post-pastoral elements can be expected to
be found in a poem (Gifford 1999: 150), the subdivision into these terms remains helpful for a better understanding of
poetry dealing with nature because the presence of these elements betray the poet’s relation to the world.
The anti-pastoral concept of nature in Hawk Roosting

According to Terry Gifford, Ted Hughes’ anti-pastoral concept of nature is rather obvious in his earlier animal poems
such as Hawk Roosting published in 1960 in his collection Lupercal (Gifford 1994: 133). To illustrate that, it has to be
asked which anti-pastoral aspects Hughes utilises in this poem and which effect such presentation of nature is likely to
have on the audience.
In the previous chapter, anti-pastoral concepts are defined as unidealised depiction of nature as a sphere of tensions,
disorder, and inequalities where merely the fittest can survive (Gifford 2012: 60). And indeed, Ted Hughes uses deeply
realistic images in order to represent nature as an environment of pessimistic realism and brutality. The cold and
unvarnished language violates any pastoral concept of natural harmony. Nature appears to consist only of predators
and prey and apparently repeats nothing more than this permanent and unsettling subdivision into hunter and hunted
(L-24). The poem is written in 1st person to create the impression as if the hawk were speaking. His tone of voice is
arrogant, proud, boastful, self-confident and shows that he considers himself the best of creation (L-10). His whole
existence solely revolves around hunting and killing (L-16). Wilderness, death, and dominance are permanently
recurrent isotopies in this poem that disenchants nature completely by reducing it to a place that seems to be owned
by the most brutal and ruthless creatures who take for themselves the right to kill what they please (L-14). Even
though there seems to be a natural order for the conservation of species, it is merely a biological one which makes the
readers concerned because they may consider this order a disorder in comparison to that of human beings. In Ted
Hughes’ poem, nature is not the idyllic place of pastoral writings any longer. Instead, Hughes composes a cynical
concept of nature by, on the one hand, using romantic images of creation (L-10) and, on the other hand, destroying
these images altogether when he unmasks this creation as no more than a brutal bunch of prey and predators (L-12).
Hawk Roosting creates very severe an effect on the reader who is likely to notice very soon that the hawk may be
understood as a metaphor of humans. The hawk shows clearly human characteristics in his reflecting on the past and
the future (L-10 and L-24), in his thinking (L-4), his concluding (L-7), his claiming (L-14), and his showing
consciousness (L-2). As humans do, he refers to himself as superior: it is not nature but himself who is ‘going to keep
things like this’ (L-24). However, the hawk is more than just a metaphor of humans; he rather serves as a mirror in
which humans are forced to recognize their beastlike nature. Human beings dominate the world, as does the hawk in
this poem, and think of themselves as the sophisticated pride of creation. But this assumed sophistication is merely
imaginary and therefore has to be unmasked as a ‘falsifying dream’ (L-2). In the end, humans are nothing more than
simply predators that have the power and the willingness to take lives. Like animals, they live out the struggle for a
survival of the fittest by permanently striving for ascendancy. By giving his hawk human characteristics and making
him speak in 1st person, Hughes does not let the reader feel superior to this creature, but crosses out any comfortable
distance between humans and wild creatures. Even with our ‘sophistery’ (L-15), we are hardly any better than the
hawk. All civilization is just an illusion and has failed completely in changing the brute human nature in us which is
still that of wild beasts using each opportunity to kill what they long to because it is all theirs (L-14). Yet, unlike the
hawk, humans do not simply kill out of livelihood and nature, but also out of pleasure and proof of superiority. Nature
here is exposed as the dark side of human psyche.
In Hawk Roosting, Hughes formulates a deeply pessimistic and disenchanting image of nature as a place where
predators dominate their prey. The animalistic nature of humans is harshly unmasked. We can trace all elements of an
anti-pastoral writing that are suggested by Terry Gifford. Thus, nature ceases to be an idyllic counterpart of human life
and is represented as an unidealised sphere where the weak and the meek get killed.
The post-pastoral concept of nature in February 17th

When we take a look at Ted Hughes’ work twenty years after the publication of Hawk Roosting, we notice a remarkable
shift in his poems that can be labeled as shift from anti-pastoral to post-pastoral concepts of nature. The poem
February 17th is quite good an example to be examined in this respect. In the following chapter, it has to be asked,
whether Terry Gifford’s classification of Ted Hughes’ later poetry as post-pastoral can be proved there and which
impact such depiction of nature might have on the reader.
All characteristics of the post-pastoral approach described by Gifford can indeed be traced in Hughes’ poem February
17th (Gifford 1994: 134-140). First of all, the tension between pastoral and anti-pastoral elements as a dynamic process
in nature is rather obvious and creates a disturbing atmosphere. The natural brutality of a lamb’s birth shows
dramatically the rigour of what untouched life in (our romantic imagination of) nature can look like. Here we find anti-
pastoral approaches that unmask nature in its cruelty and in the simultaneity of life and death. While nature is shown
in a pastoral manner as the idyll and peace of birth, it is also illustrated in its lethal haphazardness. The romantic
image of a lamb’s ‘safe landing’ (L-20 and L-45) is juxtaposed with the cruel manner in which it gets born in the end
(L-12 and L-45). As suggested by Gifford, these tensions between pastoral and anti-pastoral elements are exploited as
contradiction between divineness and intraworldliness which means as confrontation between all beings as animals
and gods alike. In February 17th, the ewe represents the divine nature in every creature. She is godlike in her being
capable of giving birth. But at the same time, she is a creature of intraworldliness and therefore beastlike because the
lamb that was supposed to be born was ‘[s]trangled by its mother’ (L-12). What is brought out, in the end, of that
divine creature is merely a dead body with a head that is hacked off (L-45). It is only man’s intervention into this
disastrous process of giving birth that rescues the ewe’s life and shows dramatically the responsibility for the
management of nature that the shepherd feels obliged to. The relationship between human being and animal is
produced in the powerful urgency of an action with which, despite the bestiality of it, the shepherd is trying to save his
sheep’s life. As for Terry Gifford, outer processes of nature reflect inner processes of humans and culture in post-
pastoral writings so that they are parts of a whole. In February 17th, the concept of nature seems indeed less
transcendental than in any pastoral writings. The ewe, suffering from its painful circumstances, is almost entirely
tangible and understandable to the shepherd. In their mutual struggle for the birth which is to safe the mother’s life
they are acting as parts of an interactive whole. And even though both of them fail eventually to give birth to a healthy
newborn, the two of them succeed in rescueing the ewe. Both are parts of the same outcome which is lucky and tragic
at the same time. Human and animal life becomes one for a terrific moment. The struggle for life is expressed in
interchanging images. The shepherd and his sheep form a unity, ‘a to-fro futility’ (L-36), in the dynamic process of
pushing against each other in their dependence on each other.