Thistles by Ted Hughes is a poem about the plant Thistle. The poem talks about how the Thistle is often seen as a weed, but it has a beauty to it. The poem also talks about how the Thistle can be dangerous, and how it can symbolize both life and death.
The title ‘thistles’ is applied to a group of flowering plants with sharp prickles in the leaves. The poem is only two lines long and consists of four stanzas of three lines each. There are no rhyming words in the poem, but there is a lot of alliteration. The poem communicates an unpleasant feeling that is violent and aggressive.
The poem Thistles by Ted Hughes is a short, aggressive poem about the plant Thistles. The poem is separated into four stanzas of three lines each and uses alliteration throughout. The mood of the poem is negative, conveying an aggression and violence.
The readers are introduced to a rural environment in the first stanza. Alliteration is used in the phrase “hoeing hands,” which depicts the activity of the individuals there who are digging up the thistle plant to remove it. The second line, “Thistles spike the summer air,” contrasts with what has been said previously.
Thistles are a symbol of annoyance, they get in the way and can harm people. The “hoeing hands” show the workers that are trying to get rid of them. In the third stanza, Ted Hughes uses similes to enhance his description of the thistle plant. He writes: “Like spears they catch the air” which is a comparison to how thistles can be sharp and prickly.
The fourth stanza looks at how the thistle has adapted over time to become more resistant to being removed. This is shown in the line: “ Theirs is the long resistance” which means that they have been around for a long time and will continue to be around. The fifth stanza looks at how the thistle is seen by different people. Some see it as a weed, something that needs to be removed. Others see it as a beautiful flower. This is shown in the lines: “To some a weed, to some a flower”. The final stanza looks at how the thistle is a symbol of Scotland. This is shown in the line: “The emblem on our tartan”. Thistles have been around for a long time and will continue to be around.
Thistles, by Ted Hughes, is a well-known and restrained poet who excels at intricacy and the concealment of emotions in small portions of life. In Thistles, Hughes personalizes Thistles; that little plant, to effectively evoke the lives of human beings while emphasizing nature’s dominance over men. The poem also considers history repeating itself in a cycle, with the dead being “resurrected.” Language techniques, diction and versification are used to express such complex ideas effectively.
Thistles belong to the genus, Onopordum, which is in the family Asteraceae. The thistle has been around for ages and is known to have medicinal purposes. Thistles have been used as a cure for baldness, acne, and even snakebites. Thistles are also known to be a very prickly plant. The word “thistle” comes from the Old English word thistel, meaning “prickle”.
The poem Thistles by Ted Hughes is about how the plant life dominates over human life. The poem starts off with the speaker talking about how he was mowing the lawn and found a thistle. The thistle was not just an ordinary thistle; it was a “giant” thistle. The speaker tries to kill the thistle, but it keeps coming back. The thistle is a symbol of how nature dominates over human life. The speaker says that the thistles are like “the ghosts of all the dead / Soldiers” who have died in battle. The thistles are also a symbol of how history repeats itself. The speaker says that the thistles are like “ancient Britons / Cutting our throats”. This shows how history has a way of repeating itself.
The poem Thistles by Ted Hughes is written in free verse. Free verse is a type of poetry that does not follow any set rhyme or meter scheme. This allows the poet to create his own rhyme and meter scheme. This also allows the poet to create his own syntax, or sentence structure. The poem Thistles by Ted Hughes is written in iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is a type of meter that consists of five iambic feet per line. An iambic foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The poem Thistles by Ted Hughes also has an ABAB rhyme scheme. This means that the first and third lines rhyme with each other, and the second and fourth lines rhyme with each other.
The poem Thistles by Ted Hughes uses language techniques such as personification, similes, and metaphors to effectively convey the speaker’s message. Personification is when an inanimate object is given human qualities. The thistle is personified in the poem when the speaker says that the thistles are like “the ghosts of all the dead / Soldiers” who have died in battle. The thistles are also personified when the speaker says that they are like “ancient Britons / Cutting our throats”. Similes are when two things are compared using the words “like” or “as”.
Thistles are a minor sort of life that is generally neglected by superior forms of life (cows and farmers), losing their identity. The poet, on the other hand, personifies the plant and gives it life. “Thistles spike summer air against rubber tongues of cows and hoeing hands of men / ThistLES crackle open under a blue-black pressure,” begins this poem.
The Thistle is surrounded by a hostile environment, with cows and farmers wanting to get rid of it. Although the Thistle tries its best to protect itself, “Its’ roots go deep / Into the ground.” The Thistle has a will to live and continues growing despite the efforts to terminate it.
In the final lines of the poem, Hughes writes about how the Thistle will always be around, long after he’s gone. “I’ll have suffered enough / When they call me Thistle.” The Thistle doesn’t want to be forgotten and wants to be remembered as more than just a weed. Ted Hughes was able to give life to an otherwise unimportant plant and make readers think about existence from a different perspective.
