Page 393 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes Overtake the instant and drag out some writhing thing.

No indolent procrastinations and no yawning states,
No sighs or head-scratchings. Nothing but bounce and stab
And a ravening second.

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? Mozart’s brain had it, and the shark’s mouth
That hungers down the blood-smell even to a leak of its own
Side and devouring of itself: efficiency which
Strikes too streamlined for any doubt to pluck at it
Or obstruction deflect.

With a man it is otherwise. Heroisms on horseback,
Outstripping his desk-diary at a broad desk,
Carving at a tiny ivory ornament
For years: his act worships itself - while for him,
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.

Ted Hughes’ “Thrushes” is one of his frequently anthologized poems. The poet is enamoured at the
violent streak in the thrushes rather than their singing ability. He is amused at their ability to “stab”.
They are by themselves ‘sleek’ or stylish. They are single-minded in purpose, and therefore very
attentive. With their iron will, they come across as coils of steel rather than mundanely humane. The
“dark deadly eye” foregrounds the scene fixed in its stare, and the poise they assume is indeed to be
regarded. The fragile legs are triggered to stirrings beyond sense, that is, it is driven on instinct-“with
a start, a bounce, a stab.” Swiftly according to impulse, they prey on the writhing thing. They indulge
in no irresolution, no lethargy and no postponing; they are characterized by immense presence of
mind.
No indolent procrastinations and no yawning states,
No sighs or head-scratchings
It just takes a rapacious second for this predatory being to satisfy ts urge.

Explain, Ted Hughes is a nature poet.

Is it their single-mindedness characterized by their solid skulls, or their body that is inherently
well-trained, or is it the undeterred genius, or the poet asks is it the “nestful of brats” or the lineage

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