Daffodils Flashcards
1
Q
Who wrote daffodils
A
Ted hughes
2
Q
When was daffodils published and in what collection
A
1998 in Birthday letters
3
Q
What is the theme of daffodils
A
- Focuses on a happy period of Hughes and Plaths marriage
- Nature of life
- loss and regret
4
Q
What is the tone of daffodils
A
Painful But happy
5
Q
What is the form and structure of daffodils
A
Dramatic monologue in free verse
Confessional poetry
Meter is iambic tetrameter, 4 iambs
Simple rhyme scheme: Abab with rhyming couplet at end
6
Q
Context of daffodils
A
- Birthday letters first time he addresses a troubled marriage directly.
- Diary entries and letters to friends reveal Hughes explaining how he first began a ‘written conversation’ with Plath as far back as the early 1970s
- recounts events including couple first meeting and their wedding day “in a pink wool knitted dress”
- this poem can be a response to “tulips” or “poppies in July”
- poem is based on life in Devon that they moved to in 1961
7
Q
Quick language techniques in daffodils
A
- Extended metaphor “wedding scissors”
- Deathly imagery “withering”
- Neologism (nomads-still)
- Juxtaposition of happiness “falling from heaven”
- Symbolism “out of the same bulbs” as daffodils rot before they blossom
8
Q
Quick overview of daffodils
A
The poets recalling a happy time in marriage planting daffodils that only he remembers now since the passing of his wife and how he didn’t take advantage of his time
Touches on wife’s death and end of marriage
