This poem really speaks of glorifying God, which is summarised in the final line 'Praise him.' which is emphasised by being monosyllabic and imperative. This highlights to the reader Hughes' agenda in glorifying God through this poem himself, whilst also calling others to do the same. The opening line 'Glory be to God for dappled things-' echoes many Bible verses exclaiming God's glory, such as Luke 2:14, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests." (The Holy Bible, NIV.) This suggests Hughes' knowledge of the Bible and appreciation for the importance of glorifying God. The lists of things to glorify God and thank Him for continue from here. They mention both natural and man-made items and entities, and vivid imagery is used to describe each one. An example of this is, 'For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow.' This simile, emphasised by the alliterative "c" of the compound adjective 'couple-colour' and the noun 'cow,' presents the sky as 'dappled,' an amalgamation of light and dark blues, greys, sometimes reds and yellows and dark or clouded black. The adjective 'brinded,' according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary is a version of the archaic word brindled, meaning "having obscure dark streaks or flecks on a usually gray or tawny ground."
Giving a detailed picture of the wonders and beauty of the sky, listed with many other 'dappled' and detailed aspects of the world, such as 'finches' wings;' reveals the intricacies of the world round us and creates an awe-full tone surrounding God's magnificence and how he should be glorified, especially in the light of His wonderful creation.
Hughes also describes more man-made, human aspects which are possible through God's provision and creation of humans and their intellect and adaptation skills. It is evident that Hughes is emphasising the need to glorify God for these things rather than to praise human endeavours, as no aspect of life could be possible without God. The description of the 'Landscape plotted and pieced,' which is an example of alliteration, creates a sense of everything falling into place under God's will, perfectly creating a beautiful landscape, skilfully toiled using, 'fold, fallow, and plough,' a triplet, also emphasised using alliteration. These poetic techniques revel both the creation of beautiful landscapes, but also the provisions given to maintain and add to them.
Finally, the last, slightly shorther quintain (as the first stanza is a sestet) deals with more abstract and less specific concepts of the world, for which God should be glorified.This takes the form of a more general list of single adjectives, such as 'All things counter, original, spare, strange.' This list does not give specific examples, as we have seen in the sestet before, but covers a multitude of both natural and man-made aspects of life. The line, 'Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)' shows the reader that we do not need to nderstand how things re made in order to glorify God for them. In fact, the mystery behind how things work, and the ability of God to make such things beyond our understanding warrants Him to be glorified even more. The rhetorical question 'who knows how?' written as a monosyllabic phrase, emphasised as an aside by parenthesis, gives the reader and affiliation with Hughes as the poet, because although he is urging the reader to 'Praise' God in this poem, he is also placing himself on the same level as the reader, rather than being religiously superior. He does this by showing his own lack of knowledge and personal, humble glorification of God through this poem. The triplet of paradoxes, 'swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;' emphasised by siblilance creates a sense of juxtaposing contrasts both being equally important in creating a balanced life. The contrasts here actually create a sense of harmony when paired in this way as the sibilance initially softens the juxtaposition to glorify God's creation of perfect balance in the world.
The Minotaur
This poem is intriguing as it six regular quatrains creates a scene of routine and of daily-life. It does not reveal the speaker's identity, which makes it difficult to be sure of the definite meaning of the poem, but perhaps that is part of the beauty of it, as the reader can interpret different aspects of it in light of their own situation, making it more universal in theme and meaning.
The basic plot seems to follow some sort of family life, with aspects of violence and hurt throughout. 'The mahogany table-top,' which is the first person speaker's 'mother's heirloom sideboard' supposes family connections, but the metaphor, 'mapped with the scars of my whole life,' suggests these connections and memories are not pleasant, but could also suggest that the violence and hurt now being experience as the 'table-top,' is 'smashed,'is creating the scars. The reason for the violence in one instance is that the unnamed, absent perpetrator is 'demented by my [the speaker's] being/ Twenty minutes late for baby-minding.' The enjambent after being, allows for the gerund to be the emphasis, initially hinting that it is their 'being' tht is the problem, before swiftly adding the condition of their duty and being late for it, creating a less serious reason for this outburst.
The direct speech and exclamation, 'Marvellous!' and the imperative prompting, 'Go on,/ Smash it into kindling.' shows the response of the apparent victim as provocative in its own sense, but not violent. In suggesting, 'That's the stuff you're keeping out of your poems!' the speaker is playing with the theme of expression and art as a device for venting feelings and being honest. The imperative metaphor, 'Get that shoulder under your stanzas,' is poetic in itself, a demand for hurtful energy and rage to be expressed and vented in a way that is less harmful for those around them.
the character of 'the goblin,' is interesting, as this fictional element depicting a creature sometimes associated with grumpiness or angst seems to be a controlling figure in the anger and destruction caused, however, perhaps it is a metaphor, or personification of this unnamed person's anger or personal conscience (or lack of.) The rhetorical question 'So what had I given him?' suggests a victim of blame and external circumstances has to watch what they say and do, in order to avoid violent or hurtful consequences.
However, the consequences of this person's unpleasant behavior are revealed in the final two quatrains. 'The bloody end of the skein/That unravelled your marriage,' is an example of personification, the past tense verb, 'unravelled,' creating a sense of slow dissolution, rather than one act affecting this marriage. This is more realistic the break-down of this marriage develops over time. The fact the actions of this person, 'left [their] children echoing/ Like tunnels in a labyrinth,' a simile, creates and empty and lonely tone surrounding the children's lives. It also relates to the title of 'The Minotaur,' a Greek myth of a creatre like a man, with a bull's head, which lived in the centre of the labyrinth. Perhaps this simile suggests that the children cry out for this person, perhaps a father-figure, but all they hear are the echoes of the walls around them, as if he doesn't care and is at the centre of his own universe, as the minotaur is at he centre of the labyrinth.
'Left your mother a dead-end,' is a pun, again playing on the idea of the labyrinth being like a maze, meaning she can go no further in the direction she is traveling. This could either be a metaphor for her inability to carry on family relations with such a cruel person as this, or that she is literally dead. The most shock-provoking consequence has to be in, 'Brought you to the horned, bellowing/ Grave o your risen father/ And your own corpse in it.' This yet again, references the title and the beast, 'The Minotaur,' through the adjective, 'horned,' as the bull head is thought to have horns. The nouns 'grave' and 'corpse,' are vivid reminders of death and create a tense mood in this poem. Perhaps the father was like the son is now, and he is following in his footsteps by dying, or perhaps it is a metaphor for a quest to overcome and defeat the monster inside himself, which was taken up too late, leaving death as a consequence.
Thrushes
This poem puts a different spin on the actions and life of a thrush, a type of ordinary, every-day bird. It presents the thrush as cold and calculated, and then compares its work to that of humans. The opening line, 'Terrifying are the attent sleek thrushes on the lawn,' is confusing and provokes the reader to read further, as the imagery of thrushes on the lawn is almost a pastoral scene, a common sight in many gardens and hardly 'terrifying.' However, it is this adjective that sets the tense and frightful tone of the first stanza. It continues, 'more coiled steel than living,' which makes the thrushes seem almost robotic and synthetic, like an experiment gone wrong. This foreshadows the apparently robotic, rhythmic nature of their actions, 'a start, a bounce, a stab.' This triplet of verbs, which is repeated in part in the phrase, 'Nothing but bounce and stab / And a ravening second,' present the thrush as calculated and forceful in its routine eating habits. The vivd imagery, 'drag out some writhing thing,' which can be assumed to be a worm, makes the thrush seem cruel and in the same category as a murderer, when in fact they are simply eating to survive. On a bird-level though, perhaps pulling worms from the ground is in some ways violent, but in reality it is a part of nature.
Hughes' focus in this poem is more so on the fact that the thrush is not hesitant in its practices, with 'no indolent procrastinations and no yawning states, No sighs or head-scratchings,' which are all familiar parts of daily human life. Although presented as having 'a poised / Dark deadly eye,' emphasised by alliteration, the thrush is seen as persistant and calculated, rather than purely evil and terrifying as initially thought after the first few lines. It is these characteristics which Hughes contrasts with human beings in their daily lives.
He begins with the rhetorical questions, and employs enjambment to present it, in 'Is it their single-mind-sized skulls, or a trained / Body, or genius, or a nestful of brats / Gives their days this bullet and automatic / Purpose?' This question is loaded with imagery and suggestions as to why the thrush is so efficient and determined in its tasks. Firstly, it is questioned whether simplicity in a 'single-mind-sized skull,' presented through sibilance, is the reason behind the focus on this task, as it is only programmed to do the one thing well, or whether its 'genius,' that just makes them superior at carrying out their daily tasks. Training is also mentioned as an option, as if these skills are developed through learning from one another throughout generations, and the possibility of having young mouths to feed is yet another option, with the offspring being described as 'brats,' a derogatory term. This perhaps suggests that the instinct is to keep their little ones happy to avoid unpleasantries, rather than simply to provide for them, which humanizes the thrushes slightly. Then, it is necessary to note, that the 'purpose,' of these birds is described with the adjectives, 'bullet,' and 'automatic,' which are both examples of battle or war imagery, which again presents the thrush as determined, calculated and cold in its actions.
Hughes describes how the actions are carried out, describing the 'efficiency which / Strikes too streamlined for any doubt to pluck at it / Or obstruction deflect.' This personification pinpoints what exactly it s that is so precise about the actions of the thrush, but through his deliberating about why the thrushes have this efficiency, he compares it to the work of Mozart, asking, 'Mozart's brain had it,' and also to the shark. It is actually compared to the 'shark's mouth / That hungers down the blood-smell even to a leak of its own / Side and devouring of itself.' These two comparisons juxtapose each other, as Mozart's efficiency is associated with intelligence and creativity, whilst the actions of the shark, although helpful to survive in some situations, can be blinded by animalistic need, such as the need to eat, which seems stupid with uncalculated risk. Therefore, Hughes is wondering where on this scale from Mozart to shark the efficiency of the thrush is to be placed.
Finally, the comparison of the efficiency of the thrush, compared to the efficiency of a human being is described in the last stanza. It simply starts, 'With a man it is otherwise.' The actions of man are almost made out to be futile, rather than productive or efficient, for example, three different levels of tasks or actions are described, 'heroisms on horseback,' emphasised by alliteration, 'outstripping his desk-diary at a broad desk, ' a fairly mundane example, and 'carving at a tiny ivory ornament / For years,' which presents a more long-term action or task, requiring more persistence perhaps. The outcome of man's actions, however, is summarised in, 'his act worships itself,' an example of personification.It is suggested that 'Though he bends to be blent in the prayer, how loud and above what / Furious spaces of fire do the distracting devils / Orgy and hosannah, under what wilderness / Of black silent waters weep.' This shows the futility of man's actions as apparently no matter how hard they try, they are never as efficient as the thrush, as in this world there are distractions. This example of prayer can be seeen as a metaphor for man's plight in all actions ad the distractions they face therein.
