Thinking- Ted Hughes

VIDEO

in this video ted hughes is elaborating on the types of thoughts and ways he thought. it was a pretty interesting sound bite. he talked about thoughts that were there for one reason or another, but seemed pretty useless. 

he expressed he couldn't keep ahold of the thought. it was a "fleeting thought"

he felt sometimes his own thoughts were outside of his own reach. 

he gave an example to think of a person, which would cause your mind to continually shift thoughts. he felt it was almost impossible to keep your mind on one subject for an extended period of time. 

the way he expressed his view on thinking explains the depth, and the reason we must read between the lines on his poems. 

mr hughes had a very complex mind, and to fully understand an artists work, we must first understand their mind, and how they "think"

The Goring

 THE GORING

Arena dust rusted by four bulls' blood to a dull redness, The afternoon at a bad end under the crowd's truculence, The ritual death each time botched among dropped capes, ill-judged stabs, The strongest will seemed a will towards ceremony. Obese, dark- Faced in his rich yellows, tassels, pompons, braid, the picador Rode out against the fifth bull to brace his pike and slowly bear Down deep into the bent bull-neck. Cumbrous routine, not artwork. Instinct for art began with the bull's horn lofting in the mob's Hush a lumped man-shape. The whole act formal, fluent as a dance. Blood faultlessly broached redeemed the sullied air, the earth's grossness.

This was honestly my favorite poem read in class. It was the ONLY poem that ever gave me a visual sense of what the author was trying to portray. It made me use pretty much all of my senses in actuality

See: the dust of the arena / ill stabs/ rich yellows

Hear: the dropped canes

Touch:the bulls horn/ the ill stabs

Taste: the dust

Smell: the earths grossness

reading this poem makes me feel like I'm watching a bull fight

Picador

Bull fight

The Subjectivity of Poetry... Rant

I've never been a big poetry fan. Mainly because of the broad spectrum of meanings something could carry. Authors/ poets write pretty much whatever they feel like, and we get graded on "translating" what we thought, or think they meant.

How can this be wrong or right, unless the teacher him/herself was the original poet. Then if thats the case, maybe the teacher isn't so good of a poet if no one understood their poetry (LOL)

No but Ive been thinking about this for a while, and for poetry to be as objective in meanings of translations, this really throws me for a loop sometimes.

for example

in ted Hughes hawk roosting, people say he was describing a dictator, and possibly a sniper, and all kinds of cool stuff. And for the sake of writing an intriguing paper, of course I went that route to write the paper, but ted hughes himself said the poem was just about a hawk.


well then why do we break our braid trying to decode something that is already decoded? or is that what poetry is? making something out of nothing? or finding the something in the something and making something from that.

i guess if poets wrote clear they would be book authors or something...

Barren Woman-Plath

Empty, I echo to the least footfall,
Museum without statues, grand with pillars, porticoes, rotundas.
In my courtyard a fountain leaps and sinks back into itself,
Nun-hearted and blind to the world. Marble lilies
Exhale their pallor like scent.

I imagine myself with a great public,
Mother of a white Nike and several bald-eyed Apollos.
Instead, the dead injure me with attentions, and nothing can happen.
The moon lays a hand on my forehead,
Blank-faced and mum as a nurse.

In this poem, plath calls herself an empty museum. 

 In the second stanza, she refers Nike and Apollo.

Plath has a few concepts involved in the poem... lilies  the moon, the concept of being full; hence -the crowded museum and the "great public."

But she never meets the great public. The museum remains empty. 

I don't get this line:

"Instead, the dead injure me with attentions, and nothing can happen."

The title speaks of a lonely woman, who possibly can't produce children (hence the name barren)

the imagery of the moon is a sexual concept. but the poem is so short, it could mean anything. 

Hawk Roosting

This poem starts with the word “I” which right away shows readers the arrogance and self centeredness of whomever “I” is. Also, throughout the poem, there is constantly a reference to “I” or to “Me” which confirms the ego of the speaker. In the first line, he states, “I sit in the top of the wood my eyes closed,” which informs readers that these are his pure thoughts, and that the outside world is not even a factor at this point. The wood can represent a tree, but metaphorically, the wood represents his kingdom, or possibly even the world. He goes on to say “inaction, no falsifying dream between my hooked head and hooked feet.” Inaction means “lack of action where some is expected or appropriate.” So he feels that he doesn’t need to make any sort of movement or action, because he himself defines movement and action. He makes clear just because his eyes are closed, does not mean that he is dreaming. While seemingly asleep, he rehearses “perfect kills and eat.” This implies that other lives are not important to him, unless they are his prey. The high trees are convenient because he is elevated, mentally, physically, and socially. The buoyancy of the air, and the sun’s ray being of advantage to him shows how arrogant he is. The definition of advantage is a condition or circumstance that puts one in a favorable or superior position. So putting this into context, it almost sounds as if he feels The Hawk is above the elements. They too are at his disposal. Also these lines have strong direct tones towards the notion of the poem being directly about a Hawk. With the references to the “hooked feet” “perfect kills and eat” “convenience of the high trees” and “the airs buoyancy” bring in the metaphorical references to the person in power. Also it is no coincidence that this is the only rhyming pattern in the poem. The “double e” rhyming sound gives attention to the noise that a hawk makes. I thought this was pretty clever of Hughes.

He feels that since he is literally elevated or “high,” it is his duty to inspect the “upward” facing earth. And not only that it is his duty, but that the earth looks up to him for inspection. With this line coming after the light death tone in line 4, its like he’s saying it is his duty to kill at times.

Closing out the poem, he makes it clear that the sun is behind him, which gives me the visual of it being a cold world, physically and metaphorically. Without the sun, there is no heat, and also this shows not only how powerful he is, but how self centered he is. The vessel that essentially provides life (photosynthesis) and that humanity depends on for survival for many things (light, heat, vitamin D, etc.) has now been replaces with a new vessel that is even more powerful than the sun.

Her Husband- Analysis

Comes home dull with coal-dust deliberately
To grime the sink and foul towels and let her
Learn with scrubbing brush and scrubbing board
The stubborn character of money. 

And let her learn through what kind of dust 
He has earned his thirst and the right to quench it
And what sweat he has exchanged for his money
And the blood-weight of money he'll humble her

With new light on her obligations
The fried, woody, chips, kept warm two hours in the 
    Oven
Are only part of her answer
Hearing the rest, he slams them to the fire back

And is away round the horse-end singing
Come back to sorrento in a voice 
Of resounding corrugated iron
Her back has bunched into a hump as an insult 

For they will have their rights
Their jurors are to be assembled 
From the little crumbs of soot. Their brief
Goes straight up to heaven and nothing more is heard of it



_________________________
In this poem, Ted Hughes is writing about a man who comes home drunk after work



The wife seems to be a housewife, and we learn from reading the poem that the husband disrespects the wife



While reading this poem, only one could wonder if Ted Hughes was expressing his regret for not appreciating Sylvia plath like he should've 




This was in the WODWO collection, so this was about 4 years after Plaths death



Hughes uses very formal words throughout the Poem, and as readers we see no sort of emotion expressed throughout the Poem. This could possibly show the coldness of the husband and wife's relationship 


In the first two stanzas, he tells us that he "let her" learn which expresses a very harsh master/slave type of relationship 

________________
The poem starts out telling us he "deliberately" or purposely comes home with coal dust, most likely all over his clothes and hands, and he takes no precautions to not get this in the house, or on things in the house 




It tells us he grimes the sink so she can Learn to use a scrubbing brush, and he grimes the towels so she can use a scrubbing board


The final line in this stanza is "the stubborn character of money"

So quite possibly this husband feels in a sense, since he is the only one working an actual job, this excuses him from being emotionally supportive, respectful, and even from treating his wife like a human being 


______________
"He let her learn through what kind of dust"

So he's possibly frustrated that she is not working, so earn any sort of money, he is going to make her work


This could quite possibly but the only sense of dominance he ever has, because obviously he is in the lower working class, when we learn he works in a coal mine in the first line, when we were told he comes home in coal dust



We are introduced to him excusing himself for being drunk in the second kind of the second stanza. "He has earned his thirst" ....from working, and the right to quench it 



"And what sweat he has exchanged for his money and the blood weight of money"


So obviously he does hard physical labor at work


His inferiority at his job quite possibly makes him feel like less of a man because he has little to no power at all, so he establishes his superiority by treating his wife at home how he is tested at work.....an example of a reversal of roles


He is starting to become the very thing he resents 




"He'll humble her with new light on her obligations"

So he is belittling the work that she is doing around the house because he feels like his job is much more important, so he is throwing the fact that he gets money....blood money at his job, and he's going to let it be known how hard he works, for the sake of his own pride, and male ego


But the reality is, if it was not for his wife, he wouldn't even have a place to come home to, so that he could feel dominant, so the questions
Then becomes, whose role is really more critical 



In line 10, through the rest of the 3rd stanza, we read that she reminds her husband the things she does, like cooks him dinner, which is in the oven when he arrives, and has been in the oven for two hours

Side note: this implies he came home later than usual




And as she continues to list what she does, he slams his food back in the oven, and drunkenly going around the house singing. "Come back to sorrento" 



Come back to sorrento is a Neapolitan song composed in the early 1900s written kn Italian , and became very popular...even frank Sinatra 
, and Elvis had their own renditions 




Sunlight dances on the sea
Tender thoughts occur to me
I have often seen your eyes
In the night time from when I dream
When I pass a garden fair
And the scent is in the air 
In my mind a dream awakes 
And my heart begins to break
But you said goodbye to me
Now all i can do is grieve 
Can it be that you forgot 
Darling forget me not
Please don't sat farewell 
And leave this heart that's broken
Come back to sorrento
So I can mend




So one could see why the wife was insulted as he sung these lyrics, to seemed to be a form of mimicry, so Hughes tells in the last line of the 4th stanza, she has bunched her back into a hump as an insult 



"For they will have their rights
Their jurors are to be assembled from the crumbs of soot"


It seems he feels the only rights she has are in the kitchen cleaning. He states the only people that will listen to her are the crumbs he made from "soot" which he himself tracks in the house from work


"Their brief goes straight up to heaven and nothing more is heard of it"


The "brief" he is referring to here is a brief from the field of law. A brief is a written document presented to a court arguing why one party in a particular case should prevail. 


And he says their brief,,,,,,her brief goes to heaven, and nothing more is heard of it 



The last stanza alone expresses how he felt, with her being a woman, she had no rights, which was the irony in this stanza. He basically tells her, if she has a problem, to talk to the mess he made for her, for that was the only thing listening to her. 

T.Hughes- The Thought Fox

In this poem, Ted Hughes seems to be comparing his writing to a fox.

The first time I read the poem, I honestly thought he was just describing the motions of a fox, until I got to the end where he says "the page is printed"

I had to go back and read it a few times, and I picked up on lines like


And this blank page where my fingers move. 

Through the window I see no star

This gives me a visual of someone attempting to write, but having writers block.... (I.e. the blank page) 

The way he describes the motions of the fox is very strong, and you can almost visualize the motions of the fox...

But honestly. I don't understand the purpose of the poem...like exactly what he's trying to say...beats me!