Pike by Ted Hudges

In this poem, pike was described as emotionless creature, which ate their mates determinedly.

In 'Pike', a lot of imagery was used to enhance how brutal and frightening the pikes were. For example, stillness like 'stunned', 'dead', 'frozen', and motion like 'splash', 'slowly'. In 'Pike', the use of stillness was much more than motion, this was used to emphasize the determination the pike had towards its prey, instead of chasing them around, it waited in a mysterious corner for a precise moment and attacked its prey in an instant. This added on to the frighteness of pikes, since they were well-planned in attacking their preys and they wouldn't have chance for the prey to escape. This showed how destructive the pikes were; they killed without hesitation, but with determination.

Also, simile was used to compare the nature and human. 'It was as deep as England', since England has a long, long history, it was mysterious to many people, just like the lake, it was so deep that human could never see its bottom, it's so mysterious that human could never understand it, just like human could never understand how powerful the nature force was.

Pike square Re-enactment during the 2009 Escalade ...

weapons

Pikes Square, the Green Tortoise

In response to the 'history', wars happened were destructive. People were cruel, brutal. They killed each other with all the weapons they invented. The poet compared pike with human, so as to show that all things in nature had primal instinct, they were willing to do anything for their own survival.

By portraying the cruelty and coldness of pikes, the poet was actually conveying the message: nature could also be cruel, it wouldn't always be our friend. Throughout the poem, it was all about death and destruction the pikes had made. By means of this, the poet was having a reflection on human nature that sometimes human could be as cruel as other animals, e.g. pikes. Also, human would do anything for survival, though with their limited knowledge and strength, because they would never know how strong and powerful the nature force was, it was still a mystery to human.