Student+Essays+about+Poems+by+Ted+Hughes

__** The two texts I have studied this year: “The Warm and the Cold” and “Work and Play” both written by Ted Hughes, displayed very vivid images and memorable ideas. This essay will explain what the ideas were in each text and conclude how they helped me remember these poems vividly. Firstly, in “The Warm and the Cold” the main idea shown in the poem is that nature appears to enjoy life more than man, even when it is locked outside on a cold night. Nature is so much more content with their lives. For example, in the poem, Hughes writes “The sparrows are in the ivy clump like money in a pig”. This quote gives us the happy image of sparrows snuggled together in the ivy like money stuffed snugly into a piggybank. Whereas he talks about the humans very negatively when he says “…while the sweating farmers, turn in their sleep, like oxen on spits…”This paints a very negative and uncomfortable image of worrying humans that can’t even sleep well tucked up in their warm beds. They may be kept tossing and turning all night because of their mind being caught up in its human worries, dramas and concerns. We can clearly see from these examples that, in Hughes’ point of view, that nature has adapted to being locked outside at night and are more content with their lives. Whereas humans can’t see and appreciate what they have. Secondly, the main idea in “Work and Play” is that nature can enjoy its life even while working, whereas man can’t enjoy his even when he is on holiday. Man seems too busy worrying, or being irritable, to be able to enjoy even what is meant to be a relaxing day at the beach. For example, Hughes writes “…the swallow of summer, the barbed harpoon, she flings from the furnace, a rainbow of purples, dips in the pond and is perfect…”This example gives us a beautiful image of a swallow happily going about her daily activity without a worry in the world. On the other hand, Hughes depicts the humans negatively “…but the serpent of cars that collapsed at the beach disgorges its organs, a scamper of colours which roll like tomatoes…to cringe in the sparkle of rollers and screech..” This example tells us about sunburt people, clambering from the car like a snake exploding its intestines, then screaming as the waves hit their bodies. This shows us that the humans can’t appear to enjoy a refreshing dip in the ocean without finding something to complain about. These examples clearly show that man, in Hughes’ view, can’t even enjoy a relaxing day at the beach while nature (represented by the swallow) can dart around and enjoy itself while at work. In conclusion, the main ideas in “The Warm and the Cold” being that nature enjoys life more than man even when locked outside on a cold night and in “Work and Play” where nature can enjoy itself while at work, whereas man can’t even enjoy his day off, really helped me remember the text. **The main ideas came across very strongly in each text and the descriptions painted vivid imagery in my mind that is very memorable. The poems were easy to remember because each sentence was inked to a vivid image that flowed like a story.**
 * __ 2008

Ted Hughes was the author of “The Warm and the Cold” and “Work and Play”. He used a lot of different language features to assist the reader in understanding the poems’ text. Some language features he used were structure, metaphors, similes, assonance, rhyme and hyperbole (exaggeration). By using these language features it helped to gain a better understanding of the poems and the themes. Hughes grew up in the country and got used to the habits and abilities of the nature around them. He had a respect for nature. In his two poems the main theme is that nature enjoys like more than humans even though nature gets locked outside on freezing nights or goes to work each day. Hughes used language features to clearly show the contrast between the positive aspects of nature and negative aspects of human nature. Firstly, Hughes used the language technique of structure and indentation in his poems. This helped develop a better understanding of the texts and themes. In the poem “Work and Play” Hughes used indentation. He indented all the negative parts about the humans. In “The Warm and The Cold” the structure was really important: the whole poem, except for the last few lines, was positive images and comparison of nature. The last few lines “..the sweating farmers turned in their sleep, like oxen on spits.” This clearly makes the last few lines really negative as it paints a negative image of humans. Therefore structure and indentation are language techniques used in “The Warm and the Cold” and “Work and Play” that helped the reader gain more understanding of the theme and poem. Secondly, Hughes used the language feature of simile in his poems and these helped me develop a better understanding of the poems and their themes. In “The Warm and the Cold” similes were used. An example is “…and the badger was in its bedding like a loaf in the oven.” This is a positive simile of nature. In the “Work and Play” negative images are created by using similes. For example “Heads like transistors” and comparing humans sunbathing to soldiers “laid out like wounded.” These lines create a negative image of humans at the beach. By using language techniques such as simile the contrast between the negative aspects of human nature and positive contentment of nature became clear. This helped the reader understand the poems more and their themes. Finally, Hughes used assonance, hyperbole and metaphor (exaggeration). In “Work and Play” he used an exaggerated metaphor: “While man eating flies jabbed electric shock needles…” This is “over the top” but makes the image clear to the reader. The poem also used assonance to depict the holiday people getting out of their cars at the beach: “Disgorges its organs”. This paints a very negative image of humans spilling onto the beach like snake guts. Therefore Hughes used language features to clearly show the contrast between positive nature and negative humans. This made the theme of the poems clear and easy to understand. In conclusion, Hughes used many different language features in “The Warm and the Cold” and “Work and Play”. This helped the reader to gain more understanding of the themes and the poem. Hughes also portrayed that humans get so tired and stressed that they turn into the stress themselves. Whereas, animals do not get caught up in the drama of the human mind and are content with their lives. If humans took the themes of these poems into consideration they could learn to enjoy and be more content with their lives. I learnt that we humans worry too much about life, when we should appreciate what we have.
 * No. 2 **