The City Planners Summary

The City Planners - Margaret Atwood

Summary:  The Canadian author/poet Margaret Atwood creates this piece of poetry, addressing the perfection, robotic, bland and uniform structure of the city as she takes a cruise through it on a relaxing Sunday weekend, something that she finds completely sickening. Throughout the poem, she addresses the sickening sense of conformity that she finds in the city as well as the hidden hand behind all of this – the ‘evil’ politicians of this world, she says.

Significant poetic devices and their significance (egg: Metaphors, symbols, rhyme scheme, form, imagery, repetition… etc)

Structure level analysis

1.       Note that as the poem continues, the size of each stanza starts to decrease in size.

a.       This can illustrate the level of suppression that we see in terms of self-expression due to development. Development is occurring at a fast rate, especially in this era where more educated people are appearing, creating wonderful inventions that we have never before thought possible. Therefore the paragraphing deals with a time shift that as this continues we start to experience oppression more and more.

b.      Alternatively, she could be addressing the transition from the urban area to rural area as housing becomes smaller and more and more packed together and furthermore becomes taller and taller. It can in a sense bring a sense of claustrophobia as we feel that our area of movement becomes more limited, similar to how the size of the paragraph becomes smaller and smaller as we continue reading, limiting the amount of content that we can include in it.

Word – Based Analysis

1.       “Cruising these residential Sunday streets in dry August sunlight”

·         This is meant to create a calming and relaxing background to use as a foundation to which the poem is based upon, which is the initial objective of the poet so that she is able to address the difference in atmosphere more starkly so that the reader can feel a bigger contrast between the two. This is similar to the works of Hunting Snake by Judith Wright which creates this beautiful imagery for the same purpose. Take note of the use of the time frame to create such an image as well. For Christians, Sunday is considered the holy day that Jesus risen from the dead. It is therefore a day where you spend time with your loved ones and the ones that matter most to you. Of course this inspires a sense of happiness and a slow relaxed feeling as you recall a day with your family, free of any worries or stresses of work.

·         Alternatively it can be used by the poet to illustrate the perfection of the city, that it can even manipulate the weather to create perfect conditions. This is very similar to the works of The Planners which exaggerates upon development having a more profound power over nature, something so powerful previously that has been alive and thriving for over hundreds and hundreds of years even before the coming of man.

2.       “What offends us is the sanities:”

·         This is the turning point in the poem that we see already, that we know that it is not really the positive poem that we hoped it to be.

·         She finds sanity an issue obviously because she finds it strange for everyone to be completely sane. It is the insanities that make us sane. What is something without its contradictions? When everybody’s sane, no one really is. Therefore she could be implying that everyone is sane, which is completely insane. 

            i.      On the other hand she could be expressing the fact that everyone in the city is complying by the rules and regulations of what is sane and insane, representing conformity throughout the city and limiting self-expression. She doesn’t like this, being the right-brained socialist poet that she is. She believes that all form of self-expression should be expressed and trying to put a stop on that is bad.

ii.      She is sickened by this fact as she does not believe that society should tell you who you are. Who are you to call someone else insane? Nowadays there are treatments and illnesses for everything. If you are not normal, you are mentally ill, which is not right at all. Be a little agitated and you have ADHD. Get angry and suddenly you have anger management issues. Can’t everyone be different? Sickening

·         Note the colon, which foreshadows the fact that she is about to list a bunch of aspects that she finds completely sane (or insane) about the city.

3.       Here she is about to list. I am not going to structure it according to the poem but according to the point for the sake of improving my reference techniques.

·         “The houses in pedantic rows

   This gives a sense of imagery about the houses being in complete straight rows, down to the very last centimetre. The state of the housing also reflect the lifestyles of the people, demonstrating the concept that ‘because the houses are completely the same, the lifestyle of the people must be constant too’, creating the sense that the city is actually a very boring place to live in as everything is completely robotic and that everybody lives under the rule of something greater than themselves. This is what the poet hates the most about these cities. Conformity and consistency. It is always in times of this that I picture the scene in Spongebob Squarepants where Squidward moves to Squidville, where everything is completely the same.

The buildings are similar, so the lifestyle of the people must be as well.

·         The planted sanitary trees

    This demonstrates development’s hold over nature. Nature is being oppressed to grow in a peculiar way in a peculiar location, just for the sake of decoration in the city. This in a way is a sense of mockery of nature by development as nature always tends to be free and uncontrolled, which is the direct opposite of the implied city that the poet is describing.

    Furthermore the fact that it is sanitary bring about a sense of urban dominance over nature as we are applying our own urban rules to something that is not part of what we have done, as if we have conquered it and subjecting it over our authority.

   Furthermore nature requires filth. It requires the beautiful bacteria and animals that live in these things to survive. By removing this, the writer has created an image of the tree and thus nature itself being tortured into being something that it’s not, putting urbanisation and development in a bad light.

·         Assert levelness of surface like a rebuke to the dent in our car door.

    This once again addresses the fact that everything is so perfect that being normal is considered wrong. Everything is so level and straight that having a dent in the car (which is considered normal for car drivers) is considered wrong. The perfectness in an insult to the imperfection.

    Ever heard the phrase ‘you don’t feel like you own a car until you put a scratch in it?’ the same may apply here. The fact that everything is perfect creates the impression that everything is owned by someone else (presumably the government) and that you have no power, even in your own home. This induces a feeling of suppression as you start to think that everything is run and owned by someone else and that what you do has no impact on someone as powerful as them. Of course, we are referring to the politicians and governments that run the city, the City Planners that Margaret Atwood describes as evil and fundamentally conspirators.

·         No shouting here, or shatter of glass;

    Notice that the line here sounds like an imperative rather than a description. “No shouting here”. The poet here is addressing the many rules and regulations that we find in the city, as if it is because of this that we find a lack of everything she describes, which it is of course. It also makes it sound way too harsh. It makes it almost sound illegal to do such things. In a way, this can be put in the poet’s perspective as she finds many of the rules that we already live under too harsh and has made such things that are legal sound harsher so that we get an idea of her opinion.

    Furthermore note that the things mentioned are usually incidents done by children in their youth. Therefore she is trying to imply that the stresses of the urban lifestyle has put a stop to all those little events that you look back upon in hindsight that sound serious at the time but things you can laugh when you are older. Those events are usually what make up your childhood. Therefore the poet is trying to imply that the urban lifestyle has destroyed the childhood of many, one of the most enjoyable time of your life. Many of us now living in the urban world don’t really have the childhood we wish we could have. Some consider going out the door creates a better childhood than staying inside to play games. I personally think it does too.

·         Nothing more abrupt than the rational whine of a power mower cutting a straight swatch in the disencouraged grass”

    Note the fault in her vocabulary. The word disencouraged is not a word at all. This can display the poet’s sense of rebellion towards development. ‘Who are you to dictate what is right and what is wrong!? I can do whatever I want!’ this source of rebellion could have come due to the fact that she does not live in the urban area at the time, as she drives through it during the weekend. Most people living in the urban area do the opposite.

    Take note of the word rational. How can a sound be rational? This of course, is a tool used by the poet. This implies a sense of control once again over the things that we thought we couldn’t control, like nature. The poet has implied that development has put control over sound as well to make it completely logical and precise, like how we have managed to build the house in exactly the same row with none of them out of place. Sound is something we can’t possibly hope to control… or can we?

    The fact that the adjective disencouraged is used to describe grass once again put nature in a pitiful position, as if development and urbanisation have put a leash on nature or has tied them up, waiting for the entity of nature to line up so that we can ‘cut them down’. Isn’t that what we are doing with gardens? We are growing them, to cut them down.

4.       It is here that the poet addresses the slight flaws of urbanisation that she sees. Note how she overexaggerates them so that she makes it look really bad in comparison with the rest of the area, as if a person with OCD was screaming “OH MY GOSH! I GOT DIRT ON MY SHOE!”

I’ll try to make this paragraph as short and sweet as possible, because I wanna sleep and I got one more poem left to cover.

·         “But through the driveways neatly sidestep hysteria by being even, the roofs all display the same slant of avoidance to the hot sky, certain things:

 i.      Once again she points out the slight faults of the place, and how they are so minute that it makes everyone completely accurate (eg: the slant from the roof, mathematically calculated so that it is as efficient as possible) and sane… or insane. Also note how she mentions everyday items, indicating that it is something that we find everywhere in the whole city, implying that the whole city is insane.

·         The smell of split oil a faint

·         Sickness lingering in the garages

·         A splash of paint on brick surprising as a bruise

·         A plastic hose poised in a vicious coil; even the too-fixed stare of the wide windows”

·   This gives the image of a snake, poised to strike. As if at any time, everything in the city will break as we cross the threshold from sane, to completely insane.

·   The too-fixed stare of the wide windows is personification, used to create the sense of insanity as insane people often tend to give a very-fixed stare at nothingness, like the house, before doing something completely crazy. The fact that you can point that out from looking at a house is scary enough if you ask me.

5.       It is in this stanza that the poet starts to make a prediction of what is going to happen when we start to get too full of ourselves. Of course the stanza is completely surreal, making it a metaphor for something else rather than what she is implying. I will be going through its wider meaning… if I can find it of course.

“Give momentary access to the landscape behind or under the future cracks in the plaster when the houses, capsized, will slide obliquely into the clay seas, gradual as glaciers that right now nobody notices.”

·         She could be expressing her ideas on how that given time, the old will be replaced with the new as the cracks in the buildings begin to show up (urban regeneration). Note the metaphor used for the house as a ship, as if a crack in the building would send water rushing into the boat. The clay sea represents the rubble that is rarely recycled, and how all buildings will ultimately end up in it, depending on how fast it breaks down. The fact that it is gradual as well illustrates the fact that we won’t even notice is, because it will take so long for one ‘ship’ to ‘sink’

·         She could also be implying that nature will come back to strike and destroy the area, perhaps in the form of plant growth or natural disaster, of which the metaphor of the buildings will make more sense if she implied a tsunami or storm surge. She is making the point that ultimately you cannot control nature, and one day it will come back to strike. Also, perfection defies nature, and it is for the same reason that it will come back to strike. You can control nature and maintain perfection, but only for so long before you suffer the retributions.

·         She could also be illustrating her issue with how the city itself will eat itself alive as it grows in size. Such examples could be Syria facing civil war or even Indonesia suffering from tremendous amounts of corruption.

6.       This is the bit when she starts to name and shame who is to blame – the City Planners. ”That is where the City Planners, with the insane faces of political conspirators are scattered over unsurveyed territories, concealed from each other, each in his own private blizzard;”

·         The word unsurveyed is also a colloquial term rather than a real English term, once again emphasizing on the rebellion that we see in her vocabulary.

·         Note the word insane used to describe the faces of political conspirators. This can exemplify their constant mood, as they try very hard to alter the course of nature and try and maintain it.

·         The use of the phrase political conspirators is used to put the politicians in a bad light, as if they are manipulating the urban area for their own gain rather than of the benefit of many. In Atwood’s perspective, this can be very true as she might think that putting a limit on creativity in exchange for education will benefit taxpayers more rather than the person themselves.

 i.  The phrase political conspirators indicates a form of criticism over the controlling nature of these people, forcing others to live in a particular manner and conform; a critique of the city planners as purposely creating future chaos.

1.        The blizzard can have a say in this as it could represent the madness they will fail by trying (or failing) to reach ultimate perfection and full conformity.

ii.      This may show a lack of awareness on the issue on behalf of the poet as she may be unaware that what usually benefits one person, benefits the people are her as well. One cannot benefit without another benefitting as well (in a non-corrupt world of course and judging by the way everything is so neat and tidy, it looks to be true)

iii.      In the phrase “scattered all over unsurveyed territories, concealed from each other, each in his own private blizzard”. This can show a misunderstanding, or a reference to the politician being both a politician and a businessman, that each one is corrupt and only wishing to do what benefits them.

1.       The fact that they are scattered all over unsurveyed territories could be a description of them looking about for business ideas and investments they can go into.

a.      The phrase concealed from each other can be an indicator for the fact that they are in economic competition with each other on the market, further exemplifying the fact that they only care for themselves and do not care for the benefit of others, even when it benefits themselves in the long run (can’t help but think about mergers here).

b.      Margaret Atwood talks about each politician or City Planner being in their own private blizzard this can be a metaphor for money, as the investment of the politician brings in a lot of money. On the other hand it can also refer to a disaster, as wealth often brings about the worst in people.

7.       “Guessing directions, they sketch transitory lines rigid as wooden borders on a wall in the white vanishing air”

·         This can extend on from the ‘business’ aspect she could be implying from the politicians. This phrase can represent the business ventures that they take, as if they are guessing directions in order to make their investment, suggesting potential urban sprawl.

·         The white vanishing air can be a reference to pollution that always comes with development and that it is the smog that is coming and making the clean air vanish into oblivion.

·         The fact that it is transitory (temporary) that often the actions of the ‘politicians’ are often rash, irrational and did not have a lot of thinking done in the background.

i.      On the other hand, she could be exemplifying how the ‘businessman’ often do their work very quickly, that we don’t even have time to respond. Time is money after all.

8.       “Tracing the panic of suburb order in a bland madness of snows”

·         Once again note the grammatically incorrect use of the word snows, illustrating a sense of rebellion over the whole concept of development.

·         This indicates that the line that they trace to mark out future investments always cause panic in the suburb as they are to be destroyed. Furthermore the use of the word panic create a sense of pity for the suburban areas as they are painted as the fearful underdog, which they are.

·         The white feature of the snow described can be a reference to the white vanishing air made in the previous line – pollution that comes with development. Furthermore it can represent the soot that often comes with burning, which can at first be mistaken as snow due to its grey colour.

·         Note the juxtaposition when panic and order are put in the same line. This can exemplify the fact that the suburban areas has its own form of order and that the new order to them, and to the poet, brings more chaos rather than the latter.

·         Bland and madness. Oxymoron. This could be in relation to what I said before. The wave of ‘blandness’ that is viewed as from the urban world can be madness to the people of the rural area, as well to people like Margaret Atwood.

Speaker of the poem:  The poet herself, Margaret Atwood

Speaker’s attitude toward the subject of the poem: Negative towards urbanization, conformity and the sense of everyone being a robot that comes with it. Expressionist, moralist… (hippie?)

Paired poems (Identify poems in the anthology and why they are appropriate to be paired)

1.       The Planners due to the reoccurring problem of urbanisation being bad for society being expressed over and over again. On the other hand, The Planners didn’t necessarily state that development and urbanisation, as well as all the things that came with it, was bad.

2.       Where I Came From in the sense that both poets favour the rural area, coincidentally the area of their birth over urban areas and development.

3.       A Different History as both poets share an equal hatred over a certain concept, A Different History and The City Planners being colonisation and urbanisation accordingly.

Memorable lines (that reinforce poetic devices)

1.       The houses in pedantic rows…

2.       But through the driveways neatly sidestep hysteria…

3.       With the insane faces of political conspirators are scattered over unsurveyed territories, concealed from each other, each in his own private blizzard;

4.       Tracing the panic of suburb order in a bland madness of snows.

Pied Beauty Summary

Pied Beauty - Herard Manly Hopkins

Summary: Hopkins was born in 1844, and died just 45 years later in 1889. He was a deeply intellectual and religious man, and became a Jesuit priest in 1877, the same year of which he wrote Pied Beauty. In the poem, the author expresses his gratitude in God for making all the beautiful things that we now see in this world (assuming that what he saw is not that far off from what we now see of course) and how we should all “praise him”.

Structure-based analysis

1)      Funny rhyme scheme here. ABCABC DBEDE. Note how every rhyming lines are indented to the same extent. This perhaps portrays the different hierarchies of the world that we see today, whether it is caste, wealth or class. He perhaps is trying to link them all together, and express the feeling that there is room for everyone in the kingdom of God, or God sees all, from the rich to the poor, no matter what your social status. The peculiar rhyme scheme could represent the fact that we often find God a very mysterious entity, one who works in mysterious ways. We cannot fully understand why he often does things so out of convention (ie storms, hurricanes) but they are all part of his plan to make everything work. The break in the rhyme scheme illustrates the fact that God is unpredictable, when you start to understand what he does and how he works, the more he changes and does something completely different. Therefore the poet is trying to demonstrate the fact that we cannot even begin to comprehend the concept of God, and that ‘the only thing we are certain about him is his uncertainty. 
The last line in the poem “praise him” is indented differently from the rest of the poem, providing a very powerful message for the conclusion, as if the poet was saying ‘Amen’ at the end of a prayer.

2)      Iambic pentameter not used, rather Sprung Rhythm is used. This is a poetic rhythm designed to imitate the rhythm of natural speech. It is constructed from feet in which the first syllable is stressed and may be followed by a variable number of unstressed syllables. In this case, the poet uses this to make his poem sound more genuine, emphasising the fact that he truly feels this sense of love towards God. The fact that it sounds like natural speech also creates a stronger empathy link with the reader and the poet, thus making it easier for the poet to get his point across.

|Glory|be to|God for|dappled|things—
For|skies of|couple-|colour as a|brinded|cow;
For|rose-moles|all in|stipple upon|trout that|swim;
Fresh-|firecoal|chestnut-|falls;|finches'|wings;
|Landscape|plotted and|pieced—fold,|fallow, and|plough;
And|all|trades, their|gear and|tackle and|trim.

|All things|counter, o|riginal,|spare,|strange;
What|ever is|fickle,|freckled|(who knows|how?)
With|swift,|slow; sweet,|sour; a|dazzle,|dim;
He|fathers-|forth whose|beauty is|past|change:
|Praise|him.|

This is the proposed separation technique found in the poem.

3)      Hyphenated words throughout the whole poem. This was very common in the romanticism era but this technique came to be associated with the innovative sonic experimentation of 20^th century modernisation.

4)      Old Testament biblical hymn or psalm writing style, once again going back to God and how God is exemplified throughout the poem. Similar to how God is the fabric that makes up the whole poem, we can also say that God is also found in the fabric of society in itself, no matter what we do, similar to how God is found in every aspect that we describe in the poem.

Check out Psalm 148. Do you find much difference?

Psalm 148 is one of the original hymns to creation:

Praise him, you highest heavens 
and you waters above the skies.

Let them praise the name of the Lord, 
for he commanded and they were created.

5)      A lot of alliteration found in this poem. This is used by the poet to unify all aspects that is described in the poem together despite the fact that that the words sometimes contrast each other. However, in other aspects they are similar. Such examples are “sweet” and “sour” that although they contrast in taste, they are all different forms of taste. Therefore what the poet is trying to do here is make links between everything we see and say that we in fact, are all living in this world where everything is linked and that we are all created from the same God that made the world so beautiful. This makes the reader feel loved as we feel part of something bigger than ourselves and make us look at God with a lot more love than we previously had, which was the primary aim of the poet.

Text-based analysis

1)      In the first line of the poem, the poet thanks God for “dappled things”. In this sense he is talking about animals having different patterns on their skins. In this sense he could be addressing patterns and how it provides us with a sense of variety. In this way providing mystery for us humans to discover, whether it is finding a new species or sailing the world to see new places. What is life without its mysteries in essence? He further expresses this in the second and third stanza.

a.       “For skies of couple-colour as a brindled cow” note that skies of couple-colour can only be done when we have streaks of it, otherwise it would just be one colour due to the mixture, bringing up the topic of “dappled things”. Furthermore the word “dappled”is another word for “brindled”.

b.      “For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim” Once again he is talking about dappled things in the trout with stipple patterns on it. Furthermore take note that stippling is a form of art technique, demonstrating the fact that all patterns and forms of variation found in animals is a form of art from God. Take note of the special stippling patterns of the fish.

                                                               i.      He also ranges from trout to cow and mentions the sky, therefore he is trying to include all aspects by addressing one of the broadest concepts possible: The land, sea and sky. 

Also, take note that the poet begins with “Glory be to God”, which is often heard at the church when we read the Bible, thus creating a psalm-like poem effect.2)      In the fourth line he talks about he talks about the “Landscape plotted and pieced- fold, fallow and plough;” Note that “plotted and pieced” are two words that portray alliteration and rightly so for they all fit together and complement each other. When we read this we often imagine an agricultural imagery, which mostly brings about European imagery, as we start think about olden times before modernisation began. This brings about a sense of calmness and tranquillity, as the emotions that are usually evoked when we see such imagery. I don’t even have to look past the first picture to get these sort of pictures when I search it up onGoogle.

Calming effect no?

3)      In the sixth line, we start to mention trade, or a skilled job. Note how he tends to mention generic tools (“gear”) and actions (“tackled and bum”) for various purposes in various jobs. Without mentioning it, he already has made a reference to fishing, sailing, clothes-making and many other jobs.

a.       Trade may be used to represent a connection between one’s works and job, perhaps creating a link with passion, of which doing often brings one joy. In terms of trade, the word “dappled” mentioned has a wider meaning and contradicts the scope of the first stanza, in which the speaker focuses mainly on the visual aspects when mentioned.

b.       Furthermore note that trade is used to benefit both people so that both perceive that they have traded for something better. Therefore the mention of trade usually evokes happy images for one who does so often. 

4)       In the seventh line, the poet talks about how “All things counter, original, spare, strange”. The word“counter” represents how everything on this Earth counters all that is normal, indicating that everything on this Earth is in essence, extraordinary.

a.       On the other hand, it can once again be a reference to God and how our concept of God “counter(s)” all logical thinking and how it counter’s the theory of science, the very subject that explains how the world works.

b.       Take note how the poet doesn’t stop his usage of commas, indicating that he feels no need or impulse to stop, as if he feels emotionally engulfed in his love for the world and for God.

Rather than list specific objects, he uses adjectives to describe their equalities. Take note that by doing so he has pointed out a range of objects that can actually be infinite depending on the reader’s interpretation of the adjective because opinion is often subjective. Therefore by doing so the poet can address a million different things that can fit the reader’s interpretation instead of only talking about a few small specific objects that some can fail to appreciate.

5)       Once again the words used to indicate unpredictability return, with words like “fickle” which means ‘liable to sudden change’. ‘Freckle’ reminds me once again of stippling, which can be used to talk about “dappled things” once again when we think about the trout. The phrase in brackets “(who knows how?)” once again talks about the beauty of the unknown and how it provides adventure. Therefore once again the implications of the first three lines of the poem can be seen here.

6)       Note the semi-colons used to divide between the three pairs of contrasting words. Once again they bring up the thought of unpredictability and how it is possible for something to ‘freckled’ with two opposite qualities.

a.       Also, never forget the power of contrasting aspects. What is the point of having something that has no opposite? How do we compare things? What is the point of having good people if we cannot compare it with the bad? What would good even mean then? It is therefore the contrast that something that it is. Also, note how the power of putting the two contrasting words together. Think of sweet and sour pork, they contrast each other, yet taste amazing.

7)       Take note of the word “fathers-forth” in the second last line. In turns of Christianity, God is portrayed as the trinity, the father, son and the Holy Spirit. In this sense he can be making a reference to God as a kind father. He has also put him in such a way that although the world changes as we move from past to future, His beauty will forever remain beautiful.

8)       Praise him. Amen. Refer to the structured level analysis. Note that in the first line, “God” is spelled with a capital G. However in the final line of poem “him” is spelled with a lower case letter, although the implication is the same and therefore should have a capital H, as is the convention. This indicates that although God essentially is all power for the creation of variety, he is also humble, of which that characteristic calls for even more glorifying, for we have an entity much more powerful than ourselves who is actually humble, something that is very hard to come by.

Speaker of the poem: The poet himself, Gerard Manly Hopkins.

Speaker’s attitude toward the subject of the poem: Thankful for all the beautiful things, especially the unique and mysterious things of this world that and addresses the issue of how we see God from a human paradigm.

Paired poems (Identify poems in the anthology and why they are appropriate to be paired)

1)      Sonnet: Composed upon Westminister Bridge in the sense of techniques used when describing the views that he sees and when he describes the town as something alive and something bigger than we can possibly imagine.

2)      Hunting Snake as it also conveys the beauty of nature throughout the poem through implicating the many wonders that can be found in nature. In Hunting Snake they are the beautiful scenery and of course, the snake itself.

Memorable lines:

1)      “Glory be to God for dappled things –“

2)      “Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow and plough;”

3)      “All things counter, original, spare, strange”

4)      “He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:”

Pike Summary

The Pike - Ted Hughes

Summary: The poem is based on his childhood. This poem is amazing in the sense that the implication of the poem is both physical and allegorical. The pond could represent the conscious mind of Hughes himself. The deeper area could represent the subconscious, which is where the true monsters live, as Hughes often said.

The poem follows the pattern of many of Hughes’ work. It is usually marked by practical knowledge and precise description of the creature described, such as their bodies and how they move, as well as their behaviour.

Significant poetic devices and their significance (eg: Metaphors, symbols, rhyme scheme, form, imagery, repetition… etc)

·         Every sentence starts with a capital letter, even though there are sometimes no form of punctuation to dictate it so. This can be used as a way to stroke the ego of the pike in the perspective of the poet they are perfect.

Word-based analysis

Stanza 1

“Pike, three inches long, perfect

He is using a baby pike as the first imagery of the poem represents the fact that they are already beautiful and innocent from birth.

Pike in all parts, green tigering the gold: “tigering” makes a reference to its ferocity and dominance that we see in the tiger, implying that he sees it in the pike as well. Gold implies royalty, putting the pike in a rather majestic and elegant light.

Killer from the egg: the malevolent aged grin.
The poet here is exemplifying the fact that the pike is already structured to become the perfect killer since birth portraying the Pike as the ultimate king of the sea in terms of dominance, commanding respect. Sarcastic evil big smile.

They dance on the surface among the flies.”
The main diet of the Pike at birth is the flies. Therefore the use of the word dance is a metaphor used to describe the hunt. “dance” implies the fact that the hunting is so easy to them due to their ingrained thinking and specialised body structure.

                                                                                                

Stanza 2

“Or move, stunned by their own grandeur
Creates an air of arrogance around the Pike, as if it knows that it is something to be respected. Use of the word grandeur once again relates the Pike to royalty or a higher-class noblemen, commanding even more respect.

Over a bed of emerald, silhouette
Emerald is considered very rare and valuable and the fact that the emerald is found on the seabed of the pond represents the fact that the Pike guards over it, as if the Pike was the king. Emeralds = wealth or treasury. Once again colour implies elegancy and royalty.

Of submarine delicacy and horror.
Note the juxtaposition in the two words “delicacy” and “horror” as well as the metaphor when we describe the pike as a submarine. It is delicate and beautiful at times (perhaps at birth), yet horrifying and terrifying when hunting. The pike gets to enjoy the best of both worlds, making the pike look privileged.

A hundred feet long in their world.”
This could be a metaphor for their dominance, they are huge in arrogance and their aura can be sensed (and feared) for as much as a hundred feet, accentuating once again the arrogance of the Pike.

Stanza 3

“In ponds, under the heat-struck lily pads-
In this point of view, the pike swims below the heat-struck lily pads. This can refer once again to royalty as we find the lily pads sacrificing itself and taking in the heat, just so that the Pike can be cool directly below it.

Gloom of their stillness; 
This is similar to the works of Hunting Snake by Judith Wright, who implies that the snake (and in this case, the pike as well) are both creatures of mystery, and that we tend to think of them as something different than they truly are – creatures of beauty. Furthermore the fact that Hughes also does the same gives the pike a calm and collected attitude; as if everything that is happening in the pond is planned by the Pike and that everything planned is going smoothly.

Logged on last year’s black leaves, watching upwards
This can exemplify the fact that the pike even holds arrogant dominance over the areas that it can’t reach (ie above the surface of the water). The black leaves could refer to the lily pads which have died, sacrificing themselves for the sake of the pike. 

Or hung in an amber cavern of weeds”
Once again there is this concept of plants sacrificing themselves to provide shelter or anything that the Pike might request. In this case, as already said before, shelter while showing a mysterious, calm and collected attitude.

Stanza 4

“The jaws’ hooked clamp and fangs
Structure once again being perfect for hunting.

Not to be changed at this date;
Nothing more needs to be improved since birth, it was already born perfect.

A life subdued to its instrument;
The poet implies that perhaps the Pike is perfectly built for killing, and thus has to live up to its expectations. That all its life it is honing (=perfeccionando) its skills in hunting.¿ It is here that is life is subdued (weakened): It is here that the poet is implying that the Pike may not be doing what he would like to be and may reflect on him instead.

This is similar to the poem found in the anthology The Cockroach when the poet finds that the animal that he describing, the cockroach, completely reflect the actions of his life.

The gills kneading quietly, and the pectorals”
This gives us a view of the mechanical makings of the Pike. Perhaps the poet is exaggerating these features to give us a sense of its raw power as well as its efficiency and consistency due to the use of the verb and adverb kneading quietly.

Stanza 5

“Three we kept behind glass,
Jungled in weed: three inches, four,
And four and a half: fed fry to them
Suddenly there were two, finally one”

Is the experience that the poet had of keeping such creatures as pets. Also note how they suddenly disappeared. The other two were killed off by the strongest one. It expresses their arrogance as they try to remain on top and the best and the most dominant. “Finally one” this two-word sentence shocks the reader, the writer’s intention is to cause an impact in the reader that is why it is too short.

The poet, who “feeds fry to them” (fry= small fish) and kept them “behind glass” “Jungled in weed”, mystery once again.

Stanza 6 and 7
“With a sag belly and a grin it was born with.
And indeed they spare nobody.
Two, six pounds each, over two feet long,
High and dry and dead in the willow-herb -
One jammed past its gills down the other’s gullet:
The outside eye stared: as a vice locks - 
The same iron in this eye
Though its film shrank in death”

Is one of the poet’s experience when he went to the lake with his father to go fishing one day. One pike swam into the mouth of another one, where both of them suffocated and died. This could represent the dangers of arrogance, contrary to what the poet was implying as he mentioned arrogance a countless number of times and painted it as positive.

The phrase “vice locks- the same iron in this eye” indicates a sense of masculinity as we see tools mentioned and of all tools, locks which represent strength as well, indicating the poet feels like the two pikes died in the most masculine way possible, thus deserving some respect.

“vice locks” = adds ferocity, adds purpose or intention of not letting go until the prey has been terminated.

Stanza 8 and 9

“A pond I fished, fifty years across,
Whose lilies and muscular tench
Had outlased every visible stone
Of the monastery that planted them - 
Stilled legendary depth: 
It was as deep as England. It held
Pike too immense to stir, so immense and old 
That past nightfall I dared not cast”

These two stanzas represent the bittersweet memories that the poet had in connection with this pond, and how he has lived with it and saw it changed throughout the ages.
The use of the word “monastery” was specially used by the poet so as to create the pond as having a sacred touch to it, as if it was the haven for pikes. It also creates an innocent image to the pond, as well as the poet when he visited that area regularly as a child. 
The hyperbole “as deep as England” makes reference to the history of the pond compared with the rich history of England. It also sounds juvenile, indicating that the poet has been at the same pond since he was a young boy.

STANZA 8-9: Reminicence of the author´s past when he seems to become emotional about fishing and the solitiude by the pond.

Stanza 10 and 11

“But silently cast fished 
With the hair frozen on my head
For what might move, for what eye might move. 
The still splashes on the dark pond,
Owls hushing the floating woods
Frail on my ear against the dream”

 the poet decides to go on one night fish in the pond. “That past nightfall I dared not cast”.conveys that Things start to become surreal.The oxymoron in the phrase “still splashes” adds to this very surreal image as in no can a splash be still as they completely contradict each other. “Owls hushing the floating woods” This piece of imagery is used to describe the darkness and the tree branches that branch out into the night sky that seem to be floating. 

I infer from  “For what might move, for what eye might move.”, he is scared of creatures of the forest attacking him, However, what he fears even more is the “eyes that might move” – the things that are already watching him, preparing to strike.

“Darkness beneath night’s darkness had freed,
That rose slowly towards me, watching.”

The first darkness is a metaphor for the Pike, justifying the fact that:

3.       It is the thing that you should be more scared of due to the pike’s potency at night.“Darkness beneath night’s darkness had been freed”. This gives the image of the pike finally being free, indicating that it will be more ferocious and animalistic than it normally is as whatever restriction that was in place before is now freed.

4.       The pike then rose slowly towards him, watching, foreshadowing the fact that he is about to be attacked. The poem ends here, leaving us wondering what that dramatic moment might be, in turn creating tension at the end of the story. Genius.

Speaker of the poem: The poet himself, Ted Hughes. In his mature self although metaphorically in his childhood self as well.

Speaker’s attitude toward the subject of the poem:  Nostalgic towards his childhood and the pond. A profound respect, almost obsession, with the pike due to its power and its impact on his childhood days.

Paired poems (Identify poems in the anthology and why they are appropriate to be paired)

1.       Hunting Snake in the sense that both writers share a profound respect for the animal that they are describing.

2.       The Woodspurge due to both poets having a wider meaning towards their feature of choice and that what they are actually describing could be completely allegorical, representing something else.

3.       Horses in the sense of the time shift throughout the text, although Horses is chronological. They also share an equal amount of respect for the animal that they are describing and also tend to point out the physical strength found in the animal.

Memorable Lines:

1.       “They dance on the surface among the flies”

2.       “Over a bed of emerald, silhouette of submarine delicacy and horror”

3.       “A pond I fished, fifty years across”

4.       “It was as deep as England”