Pike Preview.

The poem “The Pike” by Ted Hughes accentuates the drama that takes place in the calm but dangerous murky ponds that surround us. In every stanza of the poem, Hughes emphasizes that the pike is merciless and barbaric. Since Ted Hughes is a contemporary writer who wrote many poems relating to nature, he was able to give detailed imagery on two sides of the pike which was the majestic side of it, its elegance and the savageness of the Pike being a natural born killer. Hughes also attempts to link the gap of time in the poem by showing how the past and the future constantly interact.

In the first stanza, Hughes sets the scene and describes the voracious, ruthless nature of the Pike. He starts of the poem with “Pike, three inches long, perfect” using this as a start to describing the pike, he begins to build up the Pike’s image as a predator and always being one with no change required through evolution therefore using the word “perfect” as another way of saying that the pike was perfectly designed to be a predator. “Pike in all parts, green tigering the gold”, the use of the word “tigering” gives a comparison of the pike being compared to a tiger, even though they are two completely different creatures, but in their own world, they are equally as deadly as each other.

“Killers from the egg” using this, Hughes re-iterates his point of the Pike being a natural born killer. In the line “The malevolent aged grin” the poet strongly uses “malevolent” to fully describe the evil that the pike is designed for, even since the birth of the pike, its facial features have already been aged with a menacing look to show its potential for havoc and to kill. The line “They dance on the surface” show the agile side of the pike with its graceful movement of dancing “on the surface”. The pike lives and moves completely unaware of its greatness and its superiority to the other creatures in the pond, a quote to support this would be “stunned by their own