Pike by Ted Hughes

Question 1

Context

Answer 1

• Written 1960
• The night before the wedding (June 56) Hughes caught an enormous pike which filled the lake at Crookhill. He strained to control it.
• This pond is his childhood/the spirit of who he was.

Question 2

Form and Structure

Answer 2

• 44 lines divided into 11 quatrains
• no regular rhyme scheme
• first letters of all lines are capitalised in order to give the magnificent appeal of the pike.

Question 3

Subject

Answer 3

The speaker admires a pike that he has caught, as he reminisces his childhood where he enjoyed fishing in his free time. He has both respect and fear for the fish.

Question 4

Language Techniques

Answer 4

Symbolism
-Pike is symbolic of what lies beneath the everyday surface of life.

Imagery
-imagery of the poem is incredibly powerful unfolding with inevitability towards a dark conclusion, leaving readers on edge throughout the poem.