"FULL MOON AND LITTLE FRIEDA" poem

By prof.Abdelhamid Fouda 

"FULL MOON AND LITTLE FRIEDA"

    BY

"TED HUGHES"

INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND:

In this poem the poet describes about her daughter. Her daughter Frieda was so much loved by Hughes. He was worried about her future . He thinks about the challenges and new realities about life which Frieda has to face in her life. His concern is well expressed in her poem.

Hughes was more worried about his daughter's future after his separation from Sylvia Plath . He describes the suicide event of Plath as " the river of blood " in her poem. He says that Frieda is getting mature emotionally & in all other senses . This poem is epitome of finest imagery and reader can feel the concept of poem throughout the poem.

SUMMARY:

The poem opens with a beautiful imaginative image. The small cool evening is very serene and there is silence prevailing so much that even dogs shrink from barking and you can even hear minor sounds like clinking of a bucket.

The moon is full & shining and spider's web is tense as to wait for the dew drop to fall.

The bucked is un spilled & you can see the stars shining & mirroring the star.

The cows are going home crossing the uneven path. You have to pass the river of difficulties.

Then Frieda suddenly sees the moon & shouts "Moon ,Moon" many time. She is looking as she has discovered a new thing.

The moon also steps back & gaze at her in surprise & sees the girl that is pointing at him in amazement & awe.

FORM & METER:

The poem comprises of two regular quintets and one non rhyming couplet. The poem is written in blank verse and it doesn't follows a regular rhyming scheme.

It is written in style of conventional talk.

Enjambment is connecting of poetic lines in one idea. Enjambment is found in last two lines of the poem. There is use of many poetic devices in this poem including simile ,metaphors ,alliterations and personification.

The genre of poem is nature and realistic. Onomatopoeia is also used in lines " clank of bucket ". We can clearly feel the serenity of environment and sound of bucket in this onomatopoeic expression.

Positive connotations is also element of this poem and give it an optimistic sense.

THEMES:

The poem " full moon & little Frieda" is rich in themes. Some of them are:

Stillness of life:

The poet says that human beings are living still lives. There is no thrill & agitation in their lives. People only wake up or feel their surroundings when there is an accident or a sudden event In their life. The poet uses the words "spider web" and " pail full of bucket " to present his views . In the middle of poem the poet gives us an insight into this stillness ,then in middle he introduced a tremor by using the words like " sudden,gazing" etc & the again same silence of  life after an incident is given by showing normal routines like " cows going home".

Maturation:

Another important theme which prevails in the poem is consequences of maturity. Poets daughter sees moon and exclaimed after first sight of moon. Moon is like a scientific discovery for her. This is metaphor to life. Poet says that Frieda is turning from an innocent child to a mature youthful woman. She has to cross a " river of blood" in her life means the challenges which she has to face in her future life. The poem has sweet notion how naive people step in practical life & undergo changes in their life.

Uncertainty & change:

The next theme poet describes is the uncertain change of life. The poet describes how life changes with an unexpected incident . The poet describes that how life changes by influence of little things . Life is so unpredictable that we never know what is coming next and we should be prepared for our next life. The relation of past and present is very clear in life. The time passes and life becomes tranquil and placid again.

Man and nature:

The portraying of natural imagery in this poem is also defining the relation of man and nature. The landscape is beautiful and poet insists that nature has a very profound effect on lives of human life. Different things of nature are symbolised for events and realities of life. Man cannot escape the relation of nature & nature is origin of human feelings and everyone can relate to the nature. Nature is home of mankind and it is very beautifully described in this poem. In fact the beauty of this poem lies in this sketch of nature.

SPEAKER, SETTING & SYMBOLISM:

The poem is written in third person. It seems as if a passive observer is watching a young little girl Frieda. Second person " You" is also used probably to address the girl. Indirect speech is used to describe the events.

The setting of poem is in country side. A little girl is watching full moon for the first time in a cool evening. 

The evening is very beautiful and calm is all around . A little girl is sitting near the river . The clank of bucket can be heard in the peaceful silent environment. Cows are coming home.

The moon is full and we can see the reflection of stars in bucket of milk.

Many symbols are used in this poem. The poem starts with a calm ,tranquil situation . The poised surrounding are then turned into tense environment. The controversy is then slowly released and we feel an anti climax at end of poem.

If we discuss symbols used in this short poem,we find a wide variety. The most exuberant symbol is "moon" here used to symbolize youth,innocence & mirror. "Spider web " symbolizes the plain life, the stillness. Then " dew drop" symbolizes the sudden & uncertain changes & disasters of life. " dark river of blood" symbolizes the hardships of life. "amazed" is used to express surprise.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS:

Relation of past & future:

The poet gives us a concept of how past is related to future. As this poem is based on Hughes experiences of life & he is worried about his daughter's life. This poem was written after many sad incidents in Hughes life. 

He shows that future is related to past. Salvia's death & all the events of separation make Teg Hughes write this poem in which he depicts his concerns of future . He thinks about the troubles and emotional disturbance as river of blood.

The river of blood can also be interpreted as challenges and problems of adolescence life which her daughter is going to endure .

Moon as symbol of womanhood:

The poet describes moon as sign of woman hood. As Frieda is entering into a woman life from innocent and simplicity of a child.

She admires the beauty and new world. She is excited by the new discovery of her life.

So moon which is symbol of beauty and matureness. Some people deem it as sign of deep feelings, the life is full of new & enchanting things . She will go through it and even life is welcoming her for this . 

Pessimistic Approach :

Some critics also commented that this poem is having a pessimistic approach & use of horrid vocabulary "river of blood" & "crying". The girl sitting in dark is symbol of pessimism & narrow mind ness for some critics. They say that imaginations used are rough & they give them a overall theme of darkness of life.

But this opinion is rare and the poem is reviewed beautiful by most critics. 

ABOUT ERA & ITS EFFECT ON THE POEM:

The poem was published in 1967. The poet has written this poem about her beloved daughter Frieda. Some incidents narrate that this poem was written in 1961, when Ted Hughes moved to Devon, England with her wife Sylvia. The poet thinks about future of her daughter. He addresses her daughter in poem. The themes in Hughes poem are nature,violence and animals. However , we cannot say him a misanthrope. He gives impression in his poem as human beings are living worst life than animals. He saw the destructions of world war 2 as a young man. As a sensitive person,he was deeply affected by the consequences of war and lack of humanity in war. His whole life was mixture of many unique experiences. If we analyze his era we can clearly follow his development of mind thorough annihilation of war, beauties of nature to a hardworking life style & marrying an extremely emotional wife. His poetry combines all these aspects of life with his education in subjects like anthropology and archeology. He had a vast knowledge of all history of humankind and he combined this knowledge with his contemporary life experiences. His poetry is an amalgamation of post modern English era and post war events combined with love of nature and philanthropy.

Work of Hughes was also influenced by the works of earlier writers. In his university time he read all plays of Shakespeare's many times.

His work also was influenced by poets like T.S Eliot,W.B Yeats, Wilfred ,D H Lawrence and Dylan Thomas.

Analysis on ‘Full Moon And Little Frieda’

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Explore Ted Hughes’ writing in ‘Full Moon and Little Frieda’, showing how he creates a striking atmosphere.

 

The change of atmosphere in the poem Full Moon and Little Frieda is controlled by Ted Hughes to create a dramatic atmosphere. With carefully chosen words, Hughes builds up tension and brings it up to climax.

Tension is built up as a foundation for the astonishing ambience later in the poem. By closely describing stationary, unnoticeable things, the poet is able to create the suspense which helps to amplify the climax. A spider’s web is “tense for the dew’s touch” which presents the stillness of life and gives an idea that the environment is very shrunken up as if in anticipation for a shock. The imagery of a pail full of water adds to the idea of anticipation that it is “still and brimming” which portrays the expectation of an event about to happen. A pail is used well as imagery because when the water is full up to the brim, the water toppling perfectly visualises the tense climate of the poem. Also the “mirror” suggests stillness. A “tremor” is all a pail needs to tip out its content and thus foreshadows some action. Moreover, the help of the repetition of “A” in the beginning of the sentences, the listing tone embellishes tension. In the first two stanzas of the poem the build-up of tension is clearly noticeable.

While the previous stanzas were devoted to creating a strained mood, the third stanza reveals a completely different scene and yet perfects the building of the most intensified atmosphere. “Cows going home” insinuates a normal routine, a shot of an everyday life and that everything is normal despite all the tension that has been built up. The “lane” suggests an unspoilt “pail” because lanes connote evenness and uniformity which contrasts to the spilling of water. The uniformity is emphasised by “balancing unspilled milk”, careful not to spill and break order. Moreover, the sameness is exemplified by a metaphor of “warm wreaths of breath” in which the wreaths connote evenness and arrangement. Also the alliteration of “warm wreaths” holds some significance as it is a soft pronunciation and does not have any accents. This reinforces the idea of tranquillity which is an anticlimax to amplify the actual climax of the poem. While the climax is magnificent, grand and stunning, the anticlimax holds values for its antonymic behaviour. A “dark” atmosphere is adopted to hide what is coming shortly, the climax, and is given a sinister tone to add to that effect. The “dark river of blood” insinuates hardship and ominousness which is supported by “many boulders” to add to the idea of hardship. However, these boulders can be seen differently as stepping stones to help cross the “dark river of blood”. This ambiguity is used nicely to create a confusing, chaotic atmosphere which will be broken heroically. Furthermore, the whole stanza is a case of enjambment; reading the lines separately will give different meanings aforementioned, and reading it as a whole gives a contrasting idea. On seeing the stanza as one sentence, it is deducible that this stanza denotes Hughes’ rough past. Although Hughes went through various hardships and suffering, he managed to balance the “milk” and be with his daughter. Therefore, figuratively the “milk” could be his daughter which is an example of metonymy. Would he have spilt it on his course, he wouldn’t have his daughter with him at the point of writing. Hughes creates the most intense anticlimax before the pinnacle of the poem.

In contrast to the third stanza, the fourth stanza is the site of climax. This shock which the poet has to present is helped with the use of several punctuations and words. “Moon” is repeated three times to emphasise the presence and each is followed by exclamation marks to supplement the unexpected action. The word “suddenly” adds to the shocking effect. Simile is used to create a pertinent imagery to describe the shock “like an artist gazing amazed at a work” which depicts the surprise. This surprise is because of the fact that the little Frieda is so innocent and pure such that she cries out “moon” as if it was a scientific breakthrough. It is almost as if the moon is jealous of her purity, because moon itself connotes purity and is quite taken back to find a more innocent person which is suggested by the repetition of “amazed” which shows the extreme consternation of the moon. The last stanza finishes off the poem without proper ending to the climax by which creates a reverberation of the climax and also leaves an ambiguous notion. With the uses of exclamations, repetitions and simile, the climax is successfully managed to finish the poem without dissatisfaction.

Hughes creates the astonishing climax by focusing on the anticlimax which is built up from the beginning, which in the end builds up the climax itself. By closely describing objects linked with movement and intensifying the moment just before the climax, the poet built up tension and used it effectively to hit the climax with full power.

Choose moments in two [‘Amends’ by Adrienne Rich and ‘Full Moon and Little Frieda’ by Ted Hughes] poems where the language the poet uses has particularly excited you, and explain in detail why you have found it so exciting.

In the poems ‘Amends’ and ‘Full Moon and Little Frieda’, by Adrienne Rich and Ted Hughes respectively, the poets use language to excite the reader. Their language also helps them to convey their message, and to make their poems more compelling and interesting.

Repetition of the phrase “as it” in the poem ‘Amends’ sets out the actions of the moon like a list; and is exciting in that it builds up an apprehension for every action. The repetition also shows that the moon goes through these cyclic actions every night, and can be accurately predicted in such a way that the echoing makes this seem like a story being told. The repetition also makes the poem sound gentle and flowing, increasing the reader’s excitement.

In ‘Full Moon and Little Frieda’, there is also repetition that helps to make the poem exciting. The repetition of the exclamation “Moon!” three times shows the youth and innocence of the child shouting this, as well as their sheer wonder at the sight. It also helps the sudden entrance into the poem of the moon, which has gone unnoticed until this point. Thus, this shows the amazement of the child at this sudden appearance. Another example of repetition in the poem is that of “amazed”. This shows that there is mutual wonder and admiration, and helps to show the high degree of amazement in the “artist gazing” and his work that “points at him”.

The personification of the moon and the verbs that describe its actions form an integral part of the poem ‘Amends’. The rhyming words “picks”, “licks” and “flicks” are soft words that show how very light the moon’s touch is – some would say a feminine touch. “Rise”, “laying” and “flow”, also from the second stanza, are light, calm and smooth verbs as well. The image of the moon “laying its cheek” is a very soothing, and possibly motherly, gesture that cements this nurturing persona of the moon.

However, in the next two stanzas, more weighty and active verbs are used. “Pours”, “leans” and “soaks” are much more than just the light touch the moon gives before; perhaps this is because in Stanzas 3 and 4 it is doing these actions to man-made, artificial objects rather than the natural features she was touching lightly, as if there is a mutual awareness between the moon and the earth, but not with humans. These words achieve a personification that pinpoints the exact character of the moon, which helps to make the poem powerful.

Personification achieves a similar goal in ‘Full Moon and Little Frieda”. The “spider’s web, tense for the dew’s touch” builds up an anticipation of an event, as if even now inanimate objects can sense that something is about to happen. The image of the moon “stepping back” gives it not the matriarchal character of the moon in ‘Amends’, but that of an artist who is taking in the pleasure of what he has created. Thus, the moon develops a distinct identity, and the way the poet used language to do this makes it compelling to readers.

 One possible interpretation of ‘Full Moon and Little Frieda’ concerns the physical and sexual maturation of a girl, and the poet uses exciting language where he is possibly giving us this message. The “clank of a [empty] bucket”, then the “pail lifted, … brimming” conveys the image of a bucket being filled, a metaphor for the growth of the girl’s body. The “cows” are allegories for women and mothers, and the importance of “blood” and “milk” as symbols of female maturation goes unspoken. The final product of the transformation leads to the “artist gazing amazed at a work”, like a parent who has watched their child grow to womanhood. These hints towards this possible interpretation are exciting uses of language in their own right.

The first stanza of ‘Amends’ contains exciting language that makes it both an appropriate and effective introduction to the poem. It opens with the phrase “Nights like this”, which is taken from the opening lines of Act 5 of Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’. This quote introduces the setting of night-time, and immediately links the poem to the moon, which is also central to that part of ‘The Merchant of Venice’. “The cold apple-bough” establishes the natural scene that starts ‘Amends’, however ‘”cold” is a harsh, cutting word that indicates the icy chill of the night. The “white star” cuts through the night, and brings the moon into the poem suddenly and violently, described as “exploding” out of the bark. The “small stones” help to link this stanza to the “greater stones” of the beach setting of the second stanza. Thus, this stanza contains powerful language that introduces all the key elements of the poem, and establishes a gripping scene within the stanza while linking to the next.

Ted Hughes’ opening to ‘Full Moon and Little Frieda’ also conveys the setting of the poem with intriguing language, such as the opening line. The “cool small evening” presents a calm setting that expresses the mellow and tranquil tone of the poem. Furthermore, the notion of the already “small evening” shrinking is interesting; it may mean the level of activity dropped. The word ‘night’ goes unspoken, as the only noises are “a dog bark and the clank of a bucket”. This reinforces the idea that “shrunk” refers to the level of activity dropping, and is the first thing to break through the “cool” setting of the poem. The only sounds being that of a dog barking and a bucket dropping hint at a rural milieu, which agrees with the stillness of the night: in addition, the presence of cows strengthens this argument. This first sentence of the poem gives us a mundane setting, possibly that of a farm, and leads into Stanza 2, which build tension of later events. In such a tranquil setting even happenings like dogs barking seem exciting to us, and this shows the effectiveness of an opening that is only one sentence.

The second stanza of the same poem builds apprehension and foreboding for event to come, with all four lines creating some kind of tension. “And you listening” is a completion of the first sentence that gives us questions about the scene: for example, we want to know whom the speaker is addressing, although one presumes it is Little Frieda, from the title. The image of the “spider’s web, tense” shows the serenity of the environment, backed up by the “still and brimming” pail. The possibility of this pail spilling creates an apprehension, as if things are balancing carefully in fear of perturbation. “Tempt” and “tremor” in the fourth line are words that invoke feelings of tension. Thus, this stanza brings about a sense of apprehension, like everything awaits an approaching phenomenon.

These two poems both use exciting language to achieve their purposes. The poets employ gripping language to achieve repetition and personification, to establish setting and build tension, and to provoke different interpretations of their work. ‘Amends’ and ‘Full Moon and Little Frieda’ give us all these uses of exciting language, and both poems are powerful for this reason.

THAT MORNING" by Ted Hughes

INTRODUCTION

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The very title of “That Morning,” the next salmon poem in the second half of River, recollects the Eliadean illud tempus moment of participation in godly energy and a prelapsarian communion with all created beings. Both “That Morning” and “The Gulkana,” the subsequent salmon poem, relate the experiences of Hughes and his son Nicholas while on a fishing trip in southern Alaska in the summer of 1980.

In “That Morning” the two men, waist deep in an Arctic river, feel the press of an entire school of salmon sliding past them. Here “doubting thought” retreats, while the body becomes “a spirit-beacon / Lit by the power of the salmon.” The walls that divide man from man and man from all other orders of creation slide away as the fish elevate the fisherman’s perceptions “toward some dazzle of blessing.” The experience reconstitutes reality for Hughes. And when the gold bears enter and sport, and eat salmon as if sharing their dinner with the fishermen, the entire event becomes a paradisal journey’s end, a mo­ment of participation in the allness of being, lit by the beams of spirit brightness. So the men stand “alive in the river of light / Among the crea­tures of light, creatures of light.” Mind, body, the moment of perception, and the perceived are transfigured into one unity, one Divine Body of Imagination.)

CRITICAL APPRECIATION

The very title of “That Morning,” the next salmon poem in the second half of River, recollects the Eliadean illud tempus moment of participation in godly energy and a prelapsarian communion with all created beings. Both “That Morning” and “The Gulkana,” the subsequent salmon poem, relate the experiences of Hughes and his son Nicholas while on a fishing trip in southern Alaska in the summer of 1980.

In “That Morning” the two men, waist deep in an Arctic river, feel the press of an entire school of salmon sliding past them. Here “doubting thought” retreats, while the body becomes “a spirit-beacon / Lit by the power of the salmon.” The walls that divide man from man and man from all other orders of creation slide away as the fish elevate the fisherman’s perceptions “toward some dazzle of blessing.”

The experience reconstitutes reality for Hughes. And when the gold bears enter and sport, and eat salmon as if sharing their dinner with the fishermen, the entire event becomes a paradisal journey’s end, a mo­ment of participation in the allness of being, lit by the beams of spirit brightness. So the men stand “alive in the river of light / Among the crea­tures of light, creatures of light.” Mind, body, the moment of perception, and the perceived are transfigured into one unity, one Divine Body of Imagination.

The poem has an unconventional rhyme-scheme however the rhythm sounds usual. Hughes has frequently used the run-on lines and some lines run through three to four stanzas. We can also trace alliteration in some of the lines:

‘Till the world had seemed capsizing slowly’

‘Waist-deep in wild salmon swaying massed’

Hughes has also taken the liberty of repeated words:

‘That came on, came on, and kept on coming’.

However, the repetition of words, here, creates not only a pleasant sound effect but also stresses the massive drift of salmon and their increasing number.

The Thought-Fox by Ted Hughes

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After the war, Britain was an economic and cultural mess. The Second World War had pushed it into crushing debt and that, combined with the moral-lowering problem of losing their colonies, led to fewer jobs, and thus to poets whose body of work dealt primarily with the issues of loss of faith and hopelessness. Ted Hughes, who wrote The Thought-Fox, was one of those poets. Born in Yorkshire, Ted Hughes was the son of an avid countryman who fought in the war as part of the Lancashire Fusiliers. He had a great interest in animals, which feature heavily in a lot of his poems, and went so far as to work at a zoo after University.

Ted Hughes was married to Sylvia Plath until his affair in 1962. Only a year later, Sylvia Plath would take her own life, leaving behind feminist fans to hound Hughes after her death, and chisel his name off her headstone.

 

The Thought-Fox Summary

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Paradoxically, a lot of Ted Hughes’ poetry reaches back to muse and author models, favouring an old-fashioned format which was ridiculed by other poets.  While Movement poetry was a closed system, a down-to-earth, humanistic approach to poetry, Hughes wrote with mystical language, and the idea of something more. As Hughes himself said, “One of the things those poets had in common I think was the post-war mood of having ha enough … enough rhetoric, enough overweening push of any kind, enough of the dark gods, enough of the id, enough of the Angelic powers and the heroic efforts to make new worlds. They’d seen it all turn into death-camps and atomic bombs. All they wanted was to get back in civvies and get home to the wife and kids and for the rest of their lives not a thing was going to interfere with a nice cigarette and a nice view of the park …. Now I came a bit later. I hadn’t had enough. I was all for opening negotiations with whatever happened to be out there.”

The Thought-Fox, which you can read in full here, takes this approach to poetry. It is a poem about the writing of a poem, utilizing the symbol of the fox to stand for the idea of the muse: fleeting and quick, it haunts the poet-writer, disturbing his quiet night.

 

The Thought-Fox Analysis

The Thought-Fox starts on a silent, clear night. The poet, sitting alone at his desk, attempts to write, but has no luck with it. He senses a second presence – ‘something more near / though deeper within darkness / is entering the loneliness’. Here, the night itself is symbolic of the depths of imagination, standing for the idea of dormant genius, and the muse, which typically visits at unorthodox hours. The poet is alone at night, laboring over his poem, when he feels the stirrings of an idea.

The idea itself is symbolized by the fox’s presence, and at first, it is not clear what the idea is, to the poet. As Hughes writes, ‘a fox’s nose touches twig, leaf;’ showing, through the fragmented image of the fox’s nose, that it is only a very basic view of an idea, not one stamped out clearly. The fox is shrouded in darkness; only the pinnacle of it can be seen by the watchful poet, and likewise, the muse visits but only leaves him with a fragment of an image to build into a poem. The fox remains half-hidden and elusive throughout the entire poem; the idea, likewise, remains half-hidden to the poet, allowing him only wisps of imagery to contend with. There is a certain softness about the way that Hughes writes his imagery: his penchant for mythical language comes through in spades as he talks about the ‘dark snow’, the ‘eye / a widening deepening greenness’. Hughes has an almost cinematic quality of imagery – one can very easily imagine the quiet night, the poet at his desk, the fox touching a leaf in a separate shot – and he uses this to further evoke the idea of the playful muse, sneaking in, and sneaking out of the poet’s grasp.

Gradually, the fox emerges out of formlessness; a ‘sudden sharp hot stink of fox’, thus showing that the poet has reached the peak of his musing, and has managed to write the poem that has tantalized him throughout the night. The fox is suddenly visible, the idea is suddenly within the poet’s mind, and has been immortalized on the page. The poem and the fox exist as one entity.

Another thing to note is the very pattern of the poem itself. Ted Hughes writes with a pace that heightens the anticipation. At the start, only the fox’s nose is visible. Then two eyes. The choppy punctuation shows the hesitancy of the fox/idea, the delicate way that Ted Hughes writes about the fox leaving prints in the snow is further emphasized by the sharp, short phrase ‘sets neat prints in the snow’. The Thought-Fox moves almost like clockwork, starting out at an hour crawl, and quickening, the image of the fox becoming more concrete, until the final staggering end where the fox comes out in a rush – again, symbolized in the way that Hughes writes about it – only to dim back down into quiet – ‘the window is starless still; the clock ticks; / The page is printed’.

Hughes wrote, on this poem, ‘And I suppose that long after I am gone, as long as a copy of the poem exists, every time anyone reads it the fox will get up somewhere out of the darkness and come walking towards them’.

 

Historical Background

Ted Hughes is known as the poet of the ‘will to live’, and his primary interest tends to be the idea of animals as lords of life and death, on par with gods. He writes, ‘My interest in animals began when I began. My memory goes back pretty clearly to my third year, and by then I had so many of the toy lead animals you could buy in shops that they went right round our flat topped fore place fender nose to tail’.

He was born in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, on the 17th of August 1930, and became the Poet Laureate of England from 1984 until his death in 1998.