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Thread: Help me pls i dont understand this poem called the lake by ted hughes

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    Lightbulb Help me pls i dont understand this poem called the lake by ted hughes

    Better disguised then the leaf insect,

    A sort of subtler armadillo,
    The lake turns with me as I walk,

    Snuffles at my feet for what i might drop or kick up,
    Sucks and slobbers the stones, snorts through its lips

    Into broken glass, smacks its chops.
    It has eaten several my size

    Without developing a preference-
    Prompt, with a splash, to whatever i offer.

    It ruffles in its wallow, or lies sunning,
    Digesting old, senseless bicycles

    And a few shoes. The first down there
    Do not know they have been swallowed,

    Any more than the girl out there, who over the stern
    of a rowboat
    Tests its depth with her reflection

    How the outlets fears it-dragging it out,
    Black and yellow, a maniac eel,

    Battering it to death with sticks and stones!

  2. #2
    In the fog Charles Darnay's Avatar
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    If you have never come across the term personification, look it up. That is all this is.
    I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...

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    Charles is correct. But there is little to understand from this insanity other than that. Actually it should be an asset for you not to understand this poem. Lucky you. LOL

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    Well when i read this poem i get the idea that they are comparing the lake to a big monster and maybey the meaning is that everyone is to worried about their life that they get sucked in to a abyss... does anyone agree with me?

  5. #5
    In the fog Charles Darnay's Avatar
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    You are overthinking this one.
    I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...

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    Excuse me, big news. Jodi guilty of first degree murder, as it should be, regardless of the miserable life her crazy companion chose to live.

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    can anyone help me understand the meaning if im overthinking this?

  8. #8
    This poem seems to be a good example of what formalist critics like Yvor Winters referred to as "obscurantism," which is to say
    extremely personal statement that is difficult to comprehend by speakers who use "common" and "public" language.

    Just examine the following excerpt:

    It ruffles in its wallow, or lies sunning,
    Digesting old, senseless bicycles

    And a few shoes. The first down there
    Do not know they have been swallowed,

    Any more than the girl out there, who over the stern
    of a rowboat
    Tests its depth with her reflection

    How the outlets fears it-dragging it out,
    Black and yellow, a maniac eel,

    Battering it to death with sticks and stones!

    That sounds very impressive, but the meaning is quite obscure...

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    do you know if its freeverse?

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    all im getting from this

    It ruffles in its wallow, or lies sunning,( lake is irritated and is calm at same time)
    Digesting old, senseless bicycles(Lake is eating anything not meaningful)

    And a few shoes. The first down there ( maybey the this is comparing people to being swallowed by society?)
    Do not know they have been swallowed,

    Any more than the girl out there, who over the stern
    of a rowboat (The girl is looking in lake not knowing she has been swallowed as well, testing her life maybey? )
    Tests its depth with her reflection

    How the outlets fears it-dragging it out,
    ( the lake dosent want to spill)
    Black and yellow, a maniac eel,
    (lake is viscous)

    i dont really understand any of this ive looked over many time and i always just think that the lake is society and it sucks in peoples lives because they are unaware that they are doing same thing over again and trapped .

  11. #11
    In the fog Charles Darnay's Avatar
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    Sort of. The lake is personified to represent people in general. By describing how a lake behaves in only a slightly exaggerated way, the poet draws out human behaviour. Or he is a oststeictialist commenting on the overuse of metaphor. I'm not too sure anymore.
    I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...

  12. #12
    Bibliophile JBI's Avatar
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    The poet is the lake. Hence why it turns with him as it walks. The woman's reflection is a comment on personal relationships. The lake in a sense is the body of experience attached to his person, which is a sum of everything it has taken in, including the girl's reflection.

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    I like that idea but i have to present in front of class tomorrow and i have to describe stanza by stanza meaning the all together at end.

  14. #14
    In the fog Charles Darnay's Avatar
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    You fished in this lake too long for someone to do your work for you
    I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...

  15. #15
    Registered User Calidore's Avatar
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    Much "analysis" is invention that sounds good, confidently presented. Assume that your fellow students don't understand this any more than you do, and possibly the teacher as well.
    You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi

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