Mushrooms by Sylvia Plath vs. Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes Essays

Mushrooms by Sylvia Plath vs. Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes Essays Mushrooms by Sylvia Plath vs. Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes Paper Mushrooms by Sylvia Plath vs. Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes Paper he sits at the top of the wood using the high trees as an advantage to him so that he can see everything that is going on beneath him. The last line of the poem shows that the hawk thinks it is more important then the Earth itself, the hawk seems to think that the Earth is subservient to him. This climaxes the poem with the most solipsistic claim and rounds off the impression of a greedy, power-crazed yet sadly ignorant creature. In contrast, Mushrooms by Sylvia Plant has a possible underlying metaphor for womens place in society. Plant was herself a feminist and although she never stated that this was the true meaning of the poem, it seems fairly likely. Plant conjures up the image of a field of mushrooms, silently growing overnight, undetected and unnoticed, almost like a silent rebellion at the end of which they will rule the world. In contrast, Hughes hawk in Hawk Roosting believes that he is already in a state of supreme power, and is not silent about it, but arrogantly flaunts his power. Plant portrays the mushrooms as a unit, as though they are all bound together by their cause, and to back this up she talks in the 1st person plural: Nobody sees us, Stops us, betrays us This enhances the image of a silent group all working as one to overthrow the oppressive regime. In contrast, the hawk is an entirely reclusive being, that feels no need for any companions, and Hughes, similarly to Plant, speaks entirely in the first errors singular. In the 4th stanza, Plant uses alliteration and internal rhyme: Soft fists insist on heaving the needles, the leafy bedding This is onomatopoeic as the repeated s sound is like the sound of mushrooms tearing through the earth and sprouting upwards. Contrastingly, Hughes chooses not to use a regular rhyme pattern, but instead uses emotive language for effect. Plant continues with the metaphor for womens position in society as she says: We diet on water, on crumbs of shadow, bland-mannered, asking little or nothing. This lays up to the stereotype of the standard housewife of the times. In the sasss women were still playing quite a subservient role in society to men and Plant clearly objected to this, and voiced her objections through poetry. During that passage, Plant also uses enjambment to establish an increasing sense of cumulative energy between stanzas. Boot Plant Ana Hughes nave nature as tenet DSSSL topic In tense poems, out It Is TN meaning under the surface that is important, a nd that is what affects how they portray nature through the use of language and perspective. Phillips ME ROD-C