Comparing the way two poets, John Claire and Ted Hughes, write about :: English Literature

Comparing the way two poets, John Claire and Ted Hughes, write about the theme of nature and the season of summer. Through out my essay, in which is to follow, I will be comparing the way two poets, John Claire and Ted Hughes, write about the theme of nature and the season of summer. The two poems that I am to study are Work And Play written by Ted Hughes and Summer Images written by John Claire in the 1800's. In both the poems the poets are talking directly to us (the reader). Although both poems are about summer and nature they are coming at us from very different points of view. In Work and Play Ted Hughes Talks directly to us about how nature in terms of the swallow deals with summer 'the swallow of summer she toils all the summer' and how nature in terms of human beings deal with summer 'But the holiday people were laid out like wounded flat as in ovens roasting and basting'. He makes the comparison between the beauty of the swallow and ugliness of the humans throughout the poem. When thinking of summer one can't help but get a rosy picture in ones mind, the beach, the sun, and the fun!! But Hughes paints a more realistic picture for us. He shows us the down side and instantly wipes away the mental picture and shows us its not all fun. Through out the poem he also points out how we are destroying our surroundings giving it a very green, environmental feel to it. He pacifically concentrates on cars, petrol and pollution 'Serpent of cars that crawl through the dust' 'in hailing petroleum'. As you can clearly tell Ted Hughes is constantly contrasting the humans (nature at its worst) with the swallow (nature at its best). John Clair's poem comes across from a different angle. He concentrates on everything that is right with nature; through out his poem we get a very romanticised view of summer, and in every stanza he describes nature to its full beauty 'much beauty intervenes', 'turn up the silver lining to the sun'. Every word that John Clair uses in his poem he manages to romanticise in some way, for example 'the jetty snail creeps from the mossy thorn' John Claire softeners the word thorn by adding a soft word in front of it, in this case the word was mossy. In the time that Claire was writing this poems was seeing nature through rose coloured glasses, but he was also summing up what people of his time thought of nature.