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    Thrushes Explanation

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    Simran Arora
    The poem "Thrushes" contrasts man with the natural world, specifically thrushes. The thrushes are described in detail and their every part is purposeful for survival. They are terrifying and steel-like, with dark deadly eyes and delicate legs that allow them to instantly attack and overpower prey. Unlike man, thrushes do not procrastinate or stare idly. Their bodies are perfectly tuned for their predatory purpose, like a shark. In contrast, man is distracted by internal devils and unable to reconcile his unconscious and conscious selves, resulting in inaction. The poem comments on the conflict within the human condition.

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    Thrushes Explanation

    Uploaded by

    Simran Arora
    117 views1 page
    The poem "Thrushes" contrasts man with the natural world, specifically thrushes. The thrushes are described in detail and their every part is purposeful for survival. They are terrifying and steel-like, with dark deadly eyes and delicate legs that allow them to instantly attack and overpower prey. Unlike man, thrushes do not procrastinate or stare idly. Their bodies are perfectly tuned for their predatory purpose, like a shark. In contrast, man is distracted by internal devils and unable to reconcile his unconscious and conscious selves, resulting in inaction. The poem comments on the conflict within the human condition.

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    The poem "Thrushes" contrasts man with the natural world, specifically thrushes. The thrushes are described in detail and their every part is purposeful for survival. They are terrifying and steel-like, with dark deadly eyes and delicate legs that allow them to instantly attack and overpower prey. Unlike man, thrushes do not procrastinate or stare idly. Their bodies are perfectly tuned for their predatory purpose, like a shark. In contrast, man is distracted by internal devils and unable to reconcile his unconscious and conscious selves, resulting in inaction. The poem comments on the conflict within the human condition.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    117 views1 page

    Thrushes Explanation

    Uploaded by

    Simran Arora
    The poem "Thrushes" contrasts man with the natural world, specifically thrushes. The thrushes are described in detail and their every part is purposeful for survival. They are terrifying and steel-like, with dark deadly eyes and delicate legs that allow them to instantly attack and overpower prey. Unlike man, thrushes do not procrastinate or stare idly. Their bodies are perfectly tuned for their predatory purpose, like a shark. In contrast, man is distracted by internal devils and unable to reconcile his unconscious and conscious selves, resulting in inaction. The poem comments on the conflict within the human condition.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 1

    Thrushes

    The contrast between the man and the natural world is no where so striking as in "Thrushes".
    Throughout the poem or in atleast the first part of the poem man is not mentioned but the implied
    object is man who doesn't equal the thrushes. Hughes describes thrushes very minutely to say that
    every part of the bird is purposeful and together they are streamlined to the survival of the bird. The
    Thrushes are terrifying and are like steel. They have dark deadly eyes and delicate legs both of which
    are triggered for the onslaught: "with a start, a bounce, a stab". It can in an instant overtake and pull
    out a thing which is writhing. It is not given to procrastination nor to yawining stares. There are no
    signs or head scratchings. It knows only to bounce and stab. Having described the Thrushes in their
    action the poet would now account for the instrument it welds its body. It has "single-mind sized
    skulls", a trained body, genius. Very few in the world of human beings and in the world of nature
    have a body which is tuned to their purpose. Mozart had a unique mind and among the animals the
    shark. They are so made that they are not obstructed at all. In the last part of the poem the poet-
    describes the weak-willed man who in spite of his heroisms on horsebacks and his dedication to art
    he is distracted by the devils within him. Hughes here is commenting on the conflict and schism
    within man. Man is a schizophrenic caught between the unconscious self and the conscious self. His
    inability to reconcile these two opposing sells resulting in inaction, procrastination, yawning stares
    etc. described in the beginning of the poem. The great Romantic poets had contrasted Man and
    Nature especially Shelley who in his 'Skylark' poem described how unlike the bird which steers into
    the sky man looks before and after before he acts. But Hughes account of man is very striking. Critics
    have commented that "Thrushes" continues the theme proposed in 'The Jaguar' — the polarity of
    fierce energy and indolent inactivity. They have said that if Hughes implicitly affirms the kinship with
    the Jaguars. He shocks and enlightens the reader of this poem by undermining any sentimental
    sense one might have of kinship with the birds. The opening stanza is hinged on the double
    perception of the predatoriness of the Thrushes and their delicacy. They are disappointed that the
    promise of the first stanza is not kept up in the rest of the poem. On the last stanza of the poem
    Terry Bifford and Neil Roberts comment? "this is the least satisfactory stanza? the paradoxes of
    human existence are reduced to epigram rather than captured in the energy of 10 language”

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