Daffodils by Ted Hughes

Question 1

Context

Answer 1

• From Birthday Letters, Hughes’ penultimate poetry collection, published to both public and critical acclaim in 1998.
• Birthday Letters was the first time he addressed the subject of his troubled first marriage directly.
• There was a huge amount of interest in the publication, which came after decades of comment and speculation about the couple’s relationship.

Question 2

Form and Structure

Answer 2

• Dramatic monologue in free verse.
• Relatively rare piece of confessional poetry in Hughes’ most confessional volume.
• Speaker of the poem is poised between exuberance and regret as he remembers the last “blessings” of a doomed marriage.

Question 3

Language Techniques

Answer 3

Imagery
-Nature imagery/ repetition of “Spring”/ “April” ironically symbolic of new life rather than loss.

Extended Metaphor
-The scissors: a token of a lost memory that isolates Hughes from both his daughter and Plath.