Ted Hughes
Crow
Tyrannosaurus
1. The title
"Crow Tyrannosaurus"
reflects several of the motifs of his poem. The theme of the constant
transformation is captured in the juxtaposition of "crow," a bird,
and "tyrannosaurus," a dinosaur, to which we know the bird, is the
closest modern relative. Continuation of life through death--the bird killing
insects for sustenance, then the cat eating the bird, the dog consuming the
cat, the man's very body likened to a slaughterhouse, and finally his decay and
being eaten by the very worms stabbed by the crow--is also conveyed by the
title's suggestion of the lineage of survivors. Interestingly, the two
creatures appear in reverse chronological order in the title. I interpret this
as zeroing in on the poem's preoccupation with the life cycle coming "full
circle"--that the highest on the food chain eventually, through its death,
supports the lowliest of life forms--and in this way alludes to a very
"samsaric" conception of earthly life.
2. The first
stanza sets the tone for the rest of the poem. It highlights a conflicting
image in which we see the creation inherent in life and the suffering inherent
in death that characterizes an absurd world. We see "creation" in the
first line, but then Hughes goes on to describe it as "a cortege / Of
mourning and lament." Pairing creation with mourning and lament seems
unusual and contradictory. Furthermore, cortege literally denotes a funeral
procession. So right off the bat, the reader is confronted with a paradoxical
view of life and death, of creation and suffering, in the same image. As the
poem unfolds, Hughes uses specific words with negative connotations to describe
the actions of consuming food to preserve life. We see "the cat's body
writhed / Gagging," the dog, a "bulging filterbag," and man
being a "walking / Abattoir / Of innocents." Hughes uses all these
negative words to describe an action that is necessary to preserve life and
perpetuate creation. Together, these elements help illustrate a darkly ironic
image of life and death, creation and suffering, that reflect the aspects of an
absurd world.
(The way in which Hughes writes the third stanza helps the
reader visualize its content. The first verse of the third stanza establishes
that "The cat’s body writhed" (line 9). Next, the cat begins to
"gag," which causes the cat to choke and pause (line 10). Hughes only
places one word in this verse contrasting with the longer length of the
previous verse. The narrowing of the tenth verse represents the narrowing of
the cat's throat due to "gagging." Hughes then describes "A
tunnel," which is also narrow and appears as a short verse on the page
(line 11). Finally, the last verse of the stanza lengthens as Hughes depicts
the "incoming-death struggles" (line 12). This lengthening reflects
the numerous sorrows and death that the cat has caused.)
3. The poem is
very interesting in the way that is talks about death. The poet uses words that
are very graphic but also words that are somewhat sympathetic to the material
being covered. This varied use of language is indicative of the crow’s
mentality as the poem progresses. In the beginning, the crow devours everything
in sight and is frightened by the terrible cries and shrills he hears. As he
continues to eat the bodies of various animals he wants the terror to end, but
his appetite is not easily satisfied. He realizes that he "ought to stop
eating" but he sees more food and cannot control himself. Thus the sorrow
of both the crow and the animals he hungers for remain filled with sorrow. ▲
4. The term
“;innocents”; alludes to the cycle of life and death and the food chain to
which we are constrained. The past 3 stanzas talk about basically how insects
are eaten by birds, which are eaten by cats and dogs. Finally, since humans are
at the top of the food chain, we inevitably have to consume and kill these
“;innocents”; in order to quench our hunger. He questions this by saying
“;ought I to stop eating,”; but ultimately there can be no other way. Perhaps
the title is appropriate for this moral dilemma because a crow is known to be
one of the most intelligent birds while a Tyrannosaurus Rex is often ascribed
to being a ferocious killer/carnivore.
5. Hughes
provides many words that are appealing to the readers' eye and ears throughout
the poem in which helps the readers to effectively visualize the scene. The
word “;quaked”;(1) helps the readers to hear and look the scene just like the
crow in the scene. In stanza 7, the crow sees a grub and shows the readers how
he kills it by stabbing, but Hughes also provides word “;weeping”; of the grub
(the crow might have also wept), the poem ends with a sentence ending with
“;the ear's deafness”; (33) which indirectly reveals the mercilessness of the
crow.
6. The words
used in this poem created very dramatic and violent images. Hughes creates a
monster that won't stop killing. However, it is apparent from this stanza that
the monster does not want to kill. This idea is apparent in the line,
"Alas/ Alas, ought I/ to stop eating and try to become the light?"
The monster believes once he stops killing, he will become 'light," this
term gives a positive connotation. The word light reminded me of the
association to the color white, which commonly stands for peace. In comparison
to this, the monster feels dark and regrets his killings. Even though the
monster wants to stop killing, he cannot help but to kill. The repetition of
the word "weeping" shows the monster does not want to kill, because
he is crying while he is killing.
7. The Crow has
to stab the grub, simply because he is Crow. At first, he is aware of the
suffering involved: 'he heard weeping', and sympathetically weeps himself. But,
paradoxically, this very weeping improves his eyesight for the grubs that
enables him to kill and makes him deaf to the suffering involved. Suffering and
death is a trap, which Crow cannot seem to escape but he can ignore it. The
reader also gets a stabbing feeling because there is no punctuation and they
are fragmented giving the feeling of pecking at the ground. He is not concerned
with the situation of the grubs because it is natural to eat when hungry,
almost a reflex action.
8. I don't know
if this is just Ted Hughes style as I haven't read a lot of his work, but the
enjambment of lines really slows the poem down, forcing the reader to focus on
very specific, distinct ideas and images. In addition to slowing the poem down,
I think the almost illogical structure of sentences makes it difficult to
comprehend on a larger scale; we pay too much attention to detail. To solve
this, Hughes uses a lot of repetition, which helps the reader go back to past
ideas and relate different parts of the poem with one another, or when
repetition is more concentrated into one area, clarity is gained because the
repeated words stand out, giving the reader a general sense of what the most
important concepts are. ▲
The “;eye's roundness”; that comes at the expense of the “;ear's
deafness”; is a result of the primal nature of animals to hunt and kill. Just
as the crow kills and eats the worm, and so on and so forth, humans are
described as a walking slaughterhouse. While the crow does questions whether or
not he should resist and “;become the light”;, the following line, “;But his
eyes saw a grub. And his head, trapsprung, stabbed”;, shows that this mental
hesitation is taken over by the physical instinct to kill and survive. By
comparing this very human need to the “;light”;, it is implied that the
“;light”; is something divine: not human and not vulnerable to physical
instincts/needs. Over time, the crow's ear grows deaf to these sounds (the line
“;weeping he walked and stabbed”; implies the passing of time in which the crow
continually kills worms), and hunts with more skill and no remorse.
Pike
It is about a pike that is
described as a monster; lots of personification. You will see by looking at the
place in my memory very hard and very carefully, and by using the words that
grew naturally out of the pictures and feelings. I captured not just a pike, I
captured the whole pond, including the monsters I never hooked."
The poet emphasizes the perfection of the Pike in the first stanza.
The pike appears to be just perfect in dimension: “three inches long, perfect.
“The whole body of the pike has green and yellow stripes across it. The
killer-instinct exists right from the hatching of the egg. This violent streak
is hereditary: it goes generations back: "the malevolent aged grin. “They
stage a dance on the surface attracting the flies, asserting their presence.
Hughes has always utilized animals as an exaggerated metaphor for the
instinctual inclination of Man.
They move stunned and overcome by their own grandeur; exhibiting
narcissistic tendencies in the process. The algae appears as a bed of emerald.
As one looks from above the waters, their silhouette appears magnified and the
length is pronounced :"a hundred feet long in their world. “The line may
also signify the flamboyance of the Pike. It is fragile; and holds the enigma
and secrecy of submarines.
In the ponds, they are found also below the heat of the lily pads.
They can be discovered in the shadow of the flower's stillness. Either they are
attached as logs to last year's leaves or appear to hang in a cavern of weeds.
The jaws are perfectly formed 'clamped' to easily prey upon their
victims, and the fangs haunt since generations. There appears to be no change
in the practical utility of these preying instruments. Theirs is a life subdued
to its instrument-the fan and jaw-the purpose is relegated to the practicality
of the situation. The kneading of the gills and the pectorals involuntarily
performs their respective functions.
Fry (the young ones of fish) are kept in a glass jar, for the pike to
prey on. There were three of these small fish. As these kept disappearing, the
Pike seemed to get bigger and bigger.
With the pike having devoured the other fishes, it now had a sagging
belly. It held the grin that it was born with. This particular grin is more
pronounced now as the fish is satisfied. The truth is that they spare nobody,
even their own kind as the poet talks of two pikes "six pounds each, over
two feet long". They are dead in the willows as one gets choked while
swallowing up the other. One jammed past its gills down the other's gullet. The
part of the pike, being eaten, projected its eye with the same firmness (iron)
that was characteristic of the species, as the film of the fish shrank in
death.
The pond that the poet fished in had lilies and tench that
foregrounded the scene .The tench is a fresh water fish of the carp family that
had a tenacious grip over life. Therefore, its exuberance seemed to exist and
"outlast" the preexisting stones in the pond. The term 'monastery'
refers to how the stones were ordained to live a secluded life: but the
blossoming of the lilies and the liveliness of the tench had relegated their
concerns.
As Hughes refers to the "depth" note the reference to the
depth in the introduction to the poem above. This 'depth' is by itself
'legendary' as it is emblematic of the deep-rooted heritage that England is
synonymous with. This depth was 'stilled' or static not meant to change with
ravages of time. The Pike was not only an aspect of this heritage; it was an
inherent part of man's basic nature as this violent streak is universal .The
human -being also has this killer/survival instinct right when he cracks from
the egg. This instinct is inborn, but the sophistication that he develops is
acquired. Nevertheless, this aggression behavior remains in this subconscious.
This killer instinct is a metaphor for the revolutionary instinct of England
that makes its heritage what it is today.
The poet silently engaged himself in fishing. In the poem, fishing
stands as a metaphor of 'self-discovery'. The hair that had grown after his
birth, was a symbol of his sophistication; as he probed his roots, it had
frozen. In the darkness of the night, the poet 'fished 'for the slightest sign
of instinct-"for what might move, what eye might move." In contrast,
to the deeper concentration of the poet, the splashes seemed conspicuous in the
still of the night. The nocturnal owls seemed to be hushing up the floating
woods that appeared to be floating to the poet in his partial dream. Beneath
the night's darkness another darkness was revealed (freed)-that of the poet's.
"That rose slowly towards me, watching. "This was the poet's other
self that he encountered-his darker side.
When one grasps the real meaning of the poem, one comprehends that
what the poet referred to in the Introduction to the poem as "quite small
lake" is really his refined self. As he reaches the phase of self
discovery, he asserts that he caught all the inherent irrational impulses in
him:" I captured not just a pike, I captured the whole pond, including the
monsters I never hooked. "This is his "prize catch."
