Saturday, February 8, 2014

How does Ted Hughes suggest sounds of the evening and communicate the extraordinary stillness of the scene in "Full Moon and Little Frieda"?

The first stanza of "Full Moon and Little Frieda" is where
both sounds and stillness (dichotomous states) come together in the largest array. In
the first line, Hughes suggests that the night is defined in its moonless
darkness--moonless until the moon comes out later--by the sound of a dog barking and the
sound of the "clank of a bucket." In the next line Hughes uses imagery to paint the
picture of stillness by mentioning the spider's web, "tense" from being newly spun,
awaiting the deeper evening when the dew will fall. He then immediately draws a second
image of stillness with a brim-full pail of water acting as a mirror for a star that can
move with the water's "tremor." In the second stanza, he suggests the sound of cows
hooves and their swishing movement as they walk up a lane past hedges. The imagery of
stillness comes directly with the suggested sound, as the cows' warm breath blows
"wreaths" upon the hedges' leaves. Finally, Hughes presents a deeper image of stillness
as the moon steps back "like an artist" to admire the beauty of Earth. Hughes suggests
simultaneous sound with the image of peopled Earth pointing at the moon in amazement
echoing Little Frieda's cry of "Moon! Moon!"

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