Summary

The poem begins with a description of some small pikes. They are only 3 inches long and their color is green and yellow. Their shape and beautiful color do not hide the fact that they are “Killers from the egg”.They move very smoothly underwater but always carry with them the horror of killing. The speaker and his friends filled a glass jar with water and kept three pikes in it. Their size was three, four, and four and a half inches long. They kill each other to satisfy their hunger. First one was missing, then two were missing. It is understood that the strongest of them ate up the missing two because the survivor’s stomach was swollen. The pike, in fact, spares nobody.

Once the speaker went to an old pond to catch a monster fish. There were pikes of huge size. The speaker tried to catch them with a fishing line. It was evening. The speaker felt horror because of the size and killing nature of the pikes. He was so afraid that he felt the hair on his head become frozen. The owls were gushing from the trees. The atmosphere was dark which make the poet more afraid. The poem ends with the threat of the violence and horror inherent in nature.

Rhyme Scheme

A rhyme scheme is the ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse. The poet doesn’t use rhyme schemes to write the poem. It is written in blank verse. Blank verse is a popular form of a modern poem. So the poet doesn’t use rhyme schemes to make a rhythm.

Structure

The poem “Pike” consists of forty-four lines divided into eleven stanzas each consisting of four lines. It can roughly be divided into three parts. The first and second stanza shows the physical description of the pike.

Stanzas three, four, five, six, and seven have been used to suggest its inborn qualities. The last four stanzas present the pike’s ominous, mysterious existence in the larger human world. Though the lines of the poem look regular, they do not have an equal number of feet. The line length varies from six (line17) to twelve (line 21) syllables. This difference between appearance and reality seems to suggest that

under the calm surface lies dangerous cannibalism. The poem does not have an end rhyme. The poet uses here speech rhythm.

Theme

The theme is the central idea in a piece of writing. The whole body explains the theme.

The main theme of the poem is “survival of the fittest”. Ted Hughes is called an animal poet. Most of his poems deal with animal qualities. The poem vividly captures the violence and cruelty prevalent in the animal world. The pike is a predator. It lives on other fish. Its killing instinct is inborn so the poet calls them “killers from the egg’. It inherits a “malevolent aged grin” by birth. From the prehistoric period, it has the same cannibalistic nature. The speaker once kept three small pieces of this species in a glass jar. He found that one mysteriously disappeared, and finally, there was only one. He discovered that the strongest one of the three ate up the other two. Though they are small in our eyes they appear very large to the fishes whom they kill and eat. It makes no distinction when it comes to eating. The pike spheres nobody. The poet reflects that there is a continuous struggle for survival in nature including in the human world.

Authors Position

When an author writes to persuade, he/she will have his/her own position on the subject. The author’s position is an author’s opinion about the subject. It may be subjective or objective.

Subjective means where the writer can use his/her own feelings, emotion, and own choice.

Objective means where the writer can’t use his/her own feelings, emotions, and own choice.

“Pike” is a subjective poem. In the first 2 stanzas, the poet describes the pike and then its qualities. Once the poet went to catch a monster pike with a companion. But he was afraid of the size and the killing nature of pike. Here, the poet said about his own experience and feelings. So it’s a subjective poem.

Figures of Speech

Figures of Speech means use of ornamental elements in a piece of writing.

Imagery:
Imagery means a collection of some images. It turns our five senses to the subject matter. We can feel it imaginary. The poem “Pike” is rich with the use of imagery.
Example:
* “green triggering the gold”
* “The jaws’ hooked clamp and fangs”
* “The outside eye stared”
* “Iron in the eye”.

Simile:
A simile is a kind of figure of speech in which the poet compared two far-faced things by the use of “as” or “like”.
Example:
* “as deep as England “
* “as a vice locks”

Metaphor:
Metaphor is a kind of figure of speech in which the poet compared two far-faced things without using “as” or “like”.
Example:
* “Killers from the egg”
* “submarine delicacy”
* “same iron in the eye”.

Hyperbole:
Hyperbole is a kind of figure of speech in which the writer exaggerates something.
Example:
* “as deep as England “
Here the poet exaggerates the pond with England.