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The poet is walking one cool evening with his daughter, the little Frieda. Suddenly and very excitedly, she
points to the full moon rising.
The poet paints a magical picture to conjure up the memories of this dramatic and memorable event,
ABOUT THE POET
Ted Hughes was born in 1930 in Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire. His early years were lived in a rural
setting where he learnt the love of nature and its creatures.
He would later study at Cambridge University where he and some fellow students produced a poetry
journal. It was at the launch of this journal that he met the American poet, Sylvia Plath, whom he soon
married.
Hughes believed that poetry and magic were intertwined. Each, he said, is a healer.
Each is the means to transport the human spirit from the dark, subconscious side of human nature into
the world of light and well-being.
Poetry therefore lies in the world of creation, in the world of everyday miracles. It is the pathway into the
realm of the imagination, the journey into the inner universe and exploration of the genuine self.
The modern world, said Hughes, overvalues the rational, objective side of human nature. Such beliefs
cause fear and pain. Healing and renewal, on the other hand, are the true purpose of poetry and magic.
The poet is therefore a shaman -- a magical medicine man who makes journeys to the underworld of the
subconscious to bring back lost souls.
The poet's wife, Sylvia Plath, committed suicide in February 1963 and her death affected Hughes
profoundly. It would take four years before he published again -- and this collection contained some truly
bleak poems.
Within this anthology, however, was "Full moon and little Frieda" -- appearing like a ray of light,
a journey once more into the healing world of magic.
Have you looked at the questions in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer the following questions:
"A cool small evening shrunk to a dog bark and the clank of a bucket."
- Comment on the poet's magical description of it being a "cool small
evening". (4)
[Need help?]
The poet is drawing together many things here, isn't he?
It's a cool evening, which accounts for the misted breath of the cattle. But why a "small evening"?
Could Hughes be referring to the fact that Frieda herself is small -- a child of maybe five or six years of
age?
Or is he suggesting that we look at just a small fragment of the evening -- a snap-shot, like a photograph
or a painting, of the moment when Frieda spotted the full moon rising?
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- How could the evening be so small that it is "shrunk to a dog bark and the clank of a
bucket"? (6)
[Need help?]
The shrinking of the evening "to a dog bark and the clank of a bucket" emphasises that the poet
is referring to just a moment in time: that precise moment of the single dog-bark possibly among many,
or the single clank of the bucket among many clanks.
It does seem that the poet is doing all of this: the reference to the smallness of Frieda and to the single
snap-shot of the events which made this moment so remarkable for him.
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"And you listening.
A spider's web, tense for the dew's touch.
A pail lifted, still and brimming -- mirror
To tempt a first star to a tremor."
- What words does the poet use to show the tension of the moment? (4)
[Need help?]
The spider's web is tense, and there is a tremor showing on the water in the pail.
And don't forget the short, stabbing phrases which add to the tension, causing us to take short, sharp
breaths of anticipation.
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- Why would the water in the pail be a "mirror to tempt a first star to a tremor"? (4)
[Need help?]
The surface of the water is still -- barely a tremor. It therefore forms a mirror which reflects the sky on
this cool evening.
Stars are magical things, bringing life and healing, bringing blessing on our lives. And so the mirror in the
bucket tempts this first star which is just beginning to show in the sky, causing it to be reflected in our lives
as well.
But there's a moment of tension here, which causes a tremor in the water and a tremor in the star.
At the same time, of course, the star itself is twinkling, showing a tremor of its own.
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- Comment on the use of alliteration and sibilance in this phrase. (4)
[Need help?]
Alliteration refers to the repetition of consonants: in this case a repetition of the "t" sound.
Sibilance is the repetition of the "s" sound, as in "first" and "star".
The purpose of both alliteration and sibilance is to create a musical sound in the ear and in the mind.
Notice that both the alliteration and sibilance here form a very light note, almost a tinkle in the ear.
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"Cows are going home in the lane there, looping the hedges with their warm wreaths of breath --
A dark river of blood, many boulders,
Balancing unspilled milk."
- Comment on the purpose of the alliteration in these lines. (4)
[Need help?]
The use of alliteration is quite obvious here: the repetition of the "b" sound: "breath
. . . blood . . . boulders . . . balancing".
It forms a heavy explicative as opposed to the tinkling sound of the "t" in the previous verse.
It therefore creates a lumbering image in our minds: of heavy cows plodding wearily home at the end of
the day.
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"The moon has stepped back like an artist gazing amazed at a work
That points at him amazed."
- Explain the amazing, magical twist that the poet uses here: personifying the moon while capturing the
child into a moving picture. (10)
[Need help?]
This truly is an amazing sleight of hand, a magical trick.
Up until this moment, all life has centred on the scene about them: the dog barking, the clank of the
bucket, the tension in the water and the web, the plodding of the cows, the wreaths of mist above their
heads, and of course the movement and excited voice of the poet's young daughter.
Then suddenly all of this changes. The poet encapsulates all of this into a picture, one of those amazing
moving pictures as we might find at Hogwarts School of Magic.
On the other hand, the moon -- which is usually viewed as motionless in the sky -- itself becomes the
centre of life, itself alive.
The moon itself becomes the artist, and the scene becomes the moon's painting.
And so the child, who is looking up at the moon in amazement, also becomes the creation of the moon
which is looking down upon its own picture.
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The poet believed that poetry and magic were one and the same thing.
- How is this shown in "Full moon and little Frieda"? (10)
[Need help?]
This question asks for your ability to examine all the clever techniques that the poet has used to bring this
picture alive in your mind.
Your answer therefore must present a thorough explanation of the alliterations and sibilance, the poet's
delightful way of capturing the scene as though it were a picture, a painting by the artist Moon overhead.
And mention anything else that comes to mind. It might be important.
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The poet creates an event as if it were a painting which captures a moment in time.
- Would you like to comment on this idea? (10)
[Need help?]
This question is once more an expansion of what has already been said.
You would need to elaborate on the poet's use of the smallness of the evening, so small that it is just a
fragment of time, a dog bark of time, a bucket clank of time.
And don't forget the tremor on the water.
And of course the inversion at the end where the entire scene itself becomes a painting by the skilled
hands of the ultimate alchemist, the Full Moon.
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