tedhughes

Ted Hughes (1930-1998) Ted Hughes was born in Yorkshire on August 17, 1930. After high school, Hughes served the Royal Air Force for two years. He then went to Pembroke College and published a few poems. He graduated from Cambridge in 1954. He met Sylvia Plath in 1956, and a few months after they had met, they were married on June 16, 1956. The pair had two children. After Sylvia committed suicide in 1963, Hughes dedicated his energy to editing and promoting Plath’s unpublished poems. Sylvia remained his inspiration for many years. Hughes’ second wife, Assia Gutmann Wevill, gave birth to their only child in 1965 and four years later, she killed herself and their child. In 1970, he married Carol Orchard and stayed with her until his death. Hughes was appointed Poet Laureate of England in 1984 until he died on October 28, 1998. I compared Ted Hughes' poetry to the lyrics of Lofticries by Purity Ring. Lofticries I chose this song because it's full of personification, much like Hughes' poetry. An example of such personification in Lofticries is "Green, green thunder and the loud, loud rain lead our woes asunder 'neath the proud, proud veins".

//Song// O lady, when the tipped cup of the moon blessed you You became soft fire with a cloud's grace; The difficult stars swam for eyes in your face; You stood, and your shadow was my place: You turned, your shadow turned to ice O my lady. media type="custom" key="23011348" align="right"

O lady, when the sea caressed you You were a marble of foam, but dumb.

When will the waves give over their foam? When will the stone open its tomb? You will not die, nor come home, O my lady.

O lady, when the wind kissed you You made him music for you were a shaped shell. I follow the waters and the wind still Since my heart heard it and all to pieces fell Which your lovers stole, meaning ill, O my lady.

O lady, consider when I shall have lost you The moon's full hands, scattering waste, The sea's hands, dark from the world's breast, The world's decay where the wind's hands have passed, And my head, worn out with love, at rest In my hands, and my hands full of dust, O my lady.

Techniques in //Song//:

 * Personification - a figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstractions are endowed with human qualities or are represented as possessing human form ("O lady, when the sea caressed you...")
 * Imagery - an author's use of vivid and descriptive language to add depth to their work (" You became soft fire with a cloud's grace; The difficult stars swam for eyes in your face...")
 * Alliteration - a pattern of sound that includes the repetition of consonant sounds (" You made him music for you were a shaped shell...")
 * === Effect in the poem: The personification gave the "ocean" people-like qualities, making it have more of a flow in the poem. The imagery described the poem in such a way that people can identify and connect with it on emotional grounds. The alliteration helped with the flow of the poem. ===

//Old Age Gets Up// Stirs its ashes and embers, its burnt sticks An eye powdered over, half melted and solid again Ponders Ideas that collapse At the first touch of attention

 The light at the window, so square and so same So full-strong as ever, the window frame A scaffold in space, for eyes to lean on

 Supporting the body, shaped to its old work Making small movements in gray air Numbed from the blurred accident Of having lived, the fatal, real injury Under the amnesia

 Something tries to save itself-searches For defenses-but words evade Like flies with their own notions

 Old age slowly gets dressed Heavily dosed with death's night Sits on the bed's edge

 Pulls its pieces together Loosely tucks in its shirt

Techniques in //Old Age Gets Up//
 * Personification - a figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstractions are endowed with human qualities or are represented as possessing human form (The whole dang poem personifies age.)
 * Imagery - an author's use of vivid and descriptive language to add depth to their work ("Stirs its ashes and embers, its burnt sticks...")
 * Simile - directly compares two things through some connective ("For defenses-but words evade like flies with their own notions...")
 * === Effect in the poem: The personification leads the reader to believe that "old age" is an elderly person. The imagery provides the reader with more insight as to what "old age" is like. The simile compares words to flies. ===

//To Paint a Waterlily media type="custom" key="23043404" align="right"// A green level of lily leaves Roofs the pond's chamber and paves

The flies' furious arena: study These, the two minds of this lady.

First observe the air's dragonfly That eats meat, that bullets by

Or stands in space to take aim; Others as dangerous comb the hum

Under the trees. There are battle-shouts <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">And death-cries everywhere hereabouts

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">But inaudible, so the eyes praise <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">To see the colours of these flies

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Rainbow their arcs, spark, or settle <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Cooling like beads of molten metal

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Through the spectrum. Think what worse <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">is the pond-bed's matter of course;

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Prehistoric bedragoned times <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Crawl that darkness with Latin names,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Have evolved no improvements there, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Jaws for heads, the set stare,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Ignorant of age as of hour— <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Now paint the long-necked lily-flower

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Which, deep in both worlds, can be still <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">As a painting, trembling hardly at all

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Though the dragonfly alight, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Whatever horror nudge her root.

Techniques in //To Paint a Waterlily://

 * Personification - a figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstractions are endowed with human qualities or are represented as possessing human form ("Through the dragonfly alight, whatever horror nudge her root...")
 * Imagery - an author's use of vivid and descriptive language to add depth to their work ("A green level of lily leaves roofs the pond's chamber and paves...")
 * Metaphor - describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object. ("First observe the air's dragonfly that eats meat, that bullets by...")
 * === Effect in the poem: The personification gives the waterlily an almost feminine feel within the poem. The imagery added a lot of depth to the poem. The metaphor compares a dragonfly with a bullet, but one could also say the dragonfly is seen as a dangerous predator in this poem. ===

Works Cited <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> "Ted Hughes." Poets.org. The Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2013.