To Paint A Water Lily Analysis

Ted Hughes’ “To Paint a Water Lily,” creates two diverse “minds” of nature: above and below the pond’s surface. Each mind is corrupt, filled with blood-thirsty dragonflies and antagonistic water creatures, but are tied together with the serene symbol of the water lily. Hughes’ speaker calls upon the artist to capture the miniscule beauty that ties the vicious minds of nature together, building his argument through contrasting imagery between the water and the air and the water lily. The speaker begins his persuasion of the artist by quickly noting the water lily’s ability to connect nature's “minds.” He describes, “A green level of lily leaves roofs the pond’s chamber and paves the flies’ furious arena.” By illustrating the water lily’s serene presence amongst the “furious” presence of nature’s minds, Hughes highlights the importance of the water lily in order to convince the artist of its task; however, this polite imagery is abruptly ended as the speaker continues to convince the artist by describing the more prominent aspect of nature-- its violence. Imagery turns gorey as the speaker maliciously delineates the first mind of nature through the dragonflies. He describes the airfield of nature’s mind by utilizing battle ground imagery such as: “bullets,” “take aim,” “dangerous,”
He describes nature’s second mind through a nameless water beast who preys upon the roots of the beautiful water lily with nearly lifeless imagery. The detached imagery communicates Hughe’s point of view that nature has not evolved since the “prehistoric bedragonned times.” By crafting images of water beasts, the speaker explains the utter savagery of nature while it “crawls in darkness.” The speaker describes the water beasts with “jaws for heads, the set stare, ignorant of age as of hour,” in order to emphasize the cold and cruel elements that lie beneath the surface, in nature’s second