Mayday on Holderness Essay

In the poem, Mayday on Holderness, Ted Hughes analyses the relationship between man and personality. The theme of the second stanza is strongly centre on death, playing a part of the poems overall theme the cycle of life. other focus point of the stanza is the eternal being of record and mans need for it. Hughes picks up on the interpolateiority of mankind in comparison to unkillable nature. Hughes conveys the idea that nature is immortal and lives off our baselesss remains, we see this by the listing of tri justary graves being part of what the North Sea swallows.This imagery is morbid and voices Hughes anti-pastoral feeling. He uses this poem to establish that nature is not clean, pure and innocent but instead has been dirtied and thrives off our dead and waste. Nature has destructive power as well as creative power. The river Humber that Hughes describes in this stanza is depicted as a loaded single vein. The use of this metaphor and comparison to a vein infer that the riv er is living, as veins atomic number 18 needed by the body to pump blood around and harbour us alive.Leading us to label the river as the blood and the country as the flesh. This metaphor consequently conveying that the people of the North rely on the river, and as a whole rely on nature, to keep them alive. However, Hughes tells us that the river contains human remains the river therefore is not only a symbol of life but also of death. This reflects the overall theme of the poem life cycles. Hughes emphasises the density of death that is contained in the river through describing it as loaded.This adjective portraying that the river is so full up to the point that it is on the verge of exploding. In addition, the assonance of i in the third var. of the stanza mimics the flowing movement of the river Humber as it travels out of hull to join the North Sea. This is also emphasised in many lines of the stanza through sibilance. Notably, for example, in the first dickens lines sunse t smudge and south skyline sh ar the hissing sound of the rivers water.Returning to the pass on Hughes is making about mans subconscious need and reliance on nature, the imagery of the river as it drains the effort of the inert North Sheffields ores reflects this. The point being made is that mankind focus their nada and time into manufacturing and industry (Sheffield being known for its steel production), turning them into lifeless, sluggish beings. Yet, we need nature to keep everything in equilibrium and without it we would not survive.The river is accepting and making use of what humans discard or have no use for, for example, the river swallows up all bog pools, dregs of toadstools. The way Hughes calls the river Humber Sheffields ores is another(prenominal) reference to the importance of industry and also that nature is used by mankind in the same(p) way Sheffield uses ores for its important elements. We take nature for granted. The idea of nature being engulfed and overloo ked by a world of manufacturing is inferred through the description of the river melting.This verb seems an unusual one to use and Hughes has selected it for its industrial connotations. As I previously mentioned, Hughes voices his anti-pastoral feeling in this poem. A filthy, more negative portrayal of nature is articulated. It appears that nature has had its purity removed, or it never existed. Hughes describes Hulls sunset smudge. The connotations of sunset are romantic, peaceful and naturally beautiful. The juxtaposition of these two words creates severe contrast, as the word smudge is onomatopoeic, with a dirty, unclean sound created by the sm and thickness heard in the d.The last line of the stanza once again enforces the idea that nature has the ultimate power over all creatures on earth. Insects, drunken, give the axe out of the air. This imagery shows authority, as though the insects are falling at natures feet. In such a way that one would fall in front of their leader. It also expresses the idea that the insects are dropping death into the river after being poisoned by the rivers fumes. Which is another way that illustrates natures ultimate power and also the sense of natures destructive power.