Analysis: October Dawn and Wind
By referring to two or three of the poems you have read so far, explain what attitude(s) to the natural world you find in these poems and what leads you to this conclusion
The poems “Wind” and “October Dawn” by Ted Hughes conveys Hughes' attitudes towards the raw power of nature. Through these two poems he presents his belief that although humans have tamed and adapted nature to our purposes, it is still powerful and has the capability of destroying us, and therefore using violent powerful imagery he conveys his awe for nature's monumental, unstoppable strength.
In the poem “October Dawn” Ted Hughes uses the “glass half full of wine left out” as a symbol of civilization which has “dreamed a premonition” that soon the ice age will come and nature will take control once again. The wine has “ice” across its eye, conveying that the wine glass has frost on it and therefore the “ice-age had begun its heave”. The “heave” indicates the massive force of nature going through the land, making it sound powerful and like an unstoppable force against even civilization (that is trying to control nature).
Furthermore, the personification of the “shrubbery” and “ice” creates the effect of relating the “doomed” shrubbery to humans and the “ice” as an army. The “shrubbery” is doomed against the sheer power of nature, just as the lawn was “over trodden and strewn” by it. By stating that the ice has it's “spearhead into place” the poet personifies the ice into an army, starting to invade once again. Thus depicting nature once again as an unstoppable force that and that it is more power and destructive than anything.
In addition, the poet compares the ice age to an industrial process “soon plate and rivet on pond and brook; Then tons of chain and massive lock to hold rivers”. The comparison between the ice's power of holding down everything to machines further highlights the sheer strength and control that it has on everything and everyone.
Ted Hughes portrays the world as
The poems “Wind” and “October Dawn” by Ted Hughes conveys Hughes' attitudes towards the raw power of nature. Through these two poems he presents his belief that although humans have tamed and adapted nature to our purposes, it is still powerful and has the capability of destroying us, and therefore using violent powerful imagery he conveys his awe for nature's monumental, unstoppable strength.
In the poem “October Dawn” Ted Hughes uses the “glass half full of wine left out” as a symbol of civilization which has “dreamed a premonition” that soon the ice age will come and nature will take control once again. The wine has “ice” across its eye, conveying that the wine glass has frost on it and therefore the “ice-age had begun its heave”. The “heave” indicates the massive force of nature going through the land, making it sound powerful and like an unstoppable force against even civilization (that is trying to control nature).
Furthermore, the personification of the “shrubbery” and “ice” creates the effect of relating the “doomed” shrubbery to humans and the “ice” as an army. The “shrubbery” is doomed against the sheer power of nature, just as the lawn was “over trodden and strewn” by it. By stating that the ice has it's “spearhead into place” the poet personifies the ice into an army, starting to invade once again. Thus depicting nature once again as an unstoppable force that and that it is more power and destructive than anything.
In addition, the poet compares the ice age to an industrial process “soon plate and rivet on pond and brook; Then tons of chain and massive lock to hold rivers”. The comparison between the ice's power of holding down everything to machines further highlights the sheer strength and control that it has on everything and everyone.
Ted Hughes portrays the world as