The Jaguar And The Pike Essay, Research Paper
Topic: ?The Jaguar?, ?The
Pike? and ?Hawk Roosting? by Ted Hughes Compare
the three poems, their similarities and differences, their aim and intention. Describe
their viewpoint and their style and language. Which
one do you prefer and why???? Some of the poems? similarities are quite
subtle and you are only able to catch them if you reread the poems a couple of
times. The most obvious one is that they are all about animals. Why is this?
Maybe Ted Hughes is comparing humans to these different animals, and with these
poems is trying to show us what we are really like. Take the hawk in ?Hawk
Roosting? for instance. He considers everything an advantage for himself. He
thinks that everything is there just for him and that he is so perfect that ?it
took the whole of Creation to produce my foot?. We humans think this way. We
seem to think that evrything is there for us, and that we are the most perfect
of Creation. ?? Also in every one of these poems, Hughes
seems to be emphasising the importance of animal instinct. ?Killers from the
egg?, ?but there?s no cage to him?. He does not criticise their instinct, on
the contrary, he seems to respect it a great deal. He is trying to make us
realise that sometimes it is better to act on instinct then to think everything
through very carefully. ?? Another similarity is that he has used only
the ?hunters? in his poems, and not the victims. He does not try to hide the
animals? bad points, instead, he writes what he sees, which adds even more
reality to his poems. ?? The differences in the three poems are
numerous, so there is no point naming but a few. ??? Both ?The Jaguar? and ?The Pike? are
written in third person narrative, whilst ?Hawk Roosting? is written in first
person narrative. ??? ?The Jaguar? feels as if it was written by
a perceptive person who saw it caged up like th
contains as much intimity as do the other two. ?Hawk Roosting? I feel contains
the most of this intimity I was talking about. This is given by the fact that
it is the hawk telling us the poem, I am going to keep things this way?. It
gives an interesting viewpoint, the animal telling us about how it feels about
its surroundings. ??? ?The Pike?, feels like it has been written
by the fisherman who has had first hand experience with the pike and knows all
the facts and the myths about it, ?A pond I fished?, ?That past nightfall I
dared not cast?.??? The language in ?Hawk Roosting? seems like
the language like the language of an old lord or aristocrat. It is composed,
and seems ancient: ?Nothing has changed since I began?. It is also in control
and emphasises the hawk?s self-absorbement and its superiority. ?? In ?The Pike?, the language makes the poem
more intriguing. The way Hughes expresses himself adds to the aura of mystery
already surrounding the poem: ?so immense and old?, ?Or hung in an amber cavern
of weeds?. ?? My favourite of these three poems is
without doubt ?Hawk Roosting?. I enjoyed the way the author wrote it from the
hawk?s point of view. But most off all I liked the language of this poem.
Certain phrases just stick to memory like: ?The allotment of death?. The hawk
is not a hypocrite, he tells us exactly what he is like: ?My manners are
tearing off heads?. But
my favourite verse of the poem has to be: ?The sun is behind me. Nothing has
changed since I began?. It just gives you a feeling that this creature has been
here since eternity and has watched us evolve the way that he wanted us to. It
is quite scary actually, but it makes you think: what if there was actually
such a creature, which has watched us for a long, long time? Deciding what we
should be like? I don?t think we will ever know. ??? Maybe it is better that way??