Raquel Jordα Bresσ                                                    11 – V – 06

 

 

EXAMINATION AT THE WOMB-DOOR

 

 

01 Who owns those scrawny little feet?           Death

     Who owns this bristly scorched-looking face?         Death

     Who owns these still-working lungs?           Death

     Who owns this utility coat of muscles?        Death

05 Who owns these unspeakable guts?            Death

     Who owns these questionable brains?         Death

     All this messy blood?          Death

     These minimum-efficiency eyes?      Death

     This wicked little tongue?    Death

10 This occasional wakefulness?          Death

 

     Given, stolen, or held pending trial?

     Held.

     Who owns the whole rainy, stony earth?     Death

     Who owns all of space?      Death

 

15 Who is stronger than hope? Death

     Who is stronger than the will?         Death

     Stronger than love? Death

     Stronger than life?   Death

 

     But who is stronger than Death?

20                               Me, evidently.

 

     Pass, Crow.

 

 

 

Hughes, Ted. Examination at the Womb-Door. (PoemHunter)

 

 

THE DEAD

 

 

01  Revolving in oval loops of solar speed,
     Couched in cauls of clay as in holy robes,
     Dead men render love and war no heed,
     Lulled in the ample womb of the full-tilt globe.

 

05 No spiritual Caesars are these dead;
     They want no proud paternal kingdom come;
     And when at last they blunder into bed
     World-wrecked, they seek only oblivion.

 

     Rolled round with goodly loam and cradled deep,
10 These bone shanks will not wake immaculate
     To trumpet-toppling dawn of doomstruck day :
     They loll forever in colossal sleep;
     Nor can God’s stern, shocked angels cry them up
     From their fond, final, infamous decay.

 

 

 

 

 

Plath, Sylvia. The Dead. (Wordplay)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANALYSIS

 

Titles ΰ Examination at the Womb-Door refers to a test and the place where it is taken.

            The Dead refers to those who do not live anymore.

 

Examination at the Womb-Door shows us, through a question-answer structure, that Death owns everything in life but man itself.

The Dead presents how death acts on people and how dead people act when dead.

 

            Both poets, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, create each one his and her own view of this universal fact and explain it with particular different words.

 

            Ted Hughes in Examination at the Womb-Door uses – as said before – a question-answer structure to create this poem because it is – as the title states – an ‘exam’. Here someone – maybe the author himself, maybe not – makes the examination asking for the one ‘who owns’ (line 1 to line 5; line 13 and line 14) all human aspects – see ‘feet’ (L1), ‘face’ (L2), ‘lungs’ (L3), ‘muscles’ (L4), ‘guts’ (L5), ‘brains’ (L6), ‘blood’ (L7), ‘eyes’ (L8) and ‘tongue’ (L9) – and who is also the one that possesses control over time and space, ‘who owns the whole rainy, stony earth?’ (L13) and ‘all of space’ (L14). This one human-like character is ‘Death’ (line 1 to line 10; line 13 and line 14).

            In The Dead, Death is not personified but it is the atmosphere that surrounds the whole poem’s situation. It is the settlement and the creator of the ‘dead men’ (L3) that are ‘lulled in the ample womb of the full-tilt globe’ (L4). Death appears to make men ‘want no proud paternal kingdom come’ (L6) and ‘They seek only oblivion’ (L8), instead of feeling ‘stronger that Death’ (L19) as it appears in Hughes’s poem.

 

            In Examination at the Womb-Door the one who is taking the exam seems to be a ‘Crow’ (L21) which ‘passes’ – see line 21 – the exam. This animal – the crow – has been considered by some critics as a symbol of mankind, which “has many characteristics in common with Man” (Skea) in Ted Hughes’ poetry. So Hughes considers men stronger than Death ‘evidently’ (L20).

In this case, in Plath’s poem The Dead we find the image of the immortal men represented in the ‘spiritual Caesars’ (L5) which are none of the dead.

So both poets deal with the consciousness of humanity and immortality in their poems and they do it so in different ways; Ted Hughes believes in the ‘superman’ who is stronger than Death whereas Sylvia Plath states that ‘these bone shanks will not wake immaculate to trumpet-toppling dawn of doomstruck day’ (lines 10&11). They lay ‘forever in colossal sleep’ (L12).

Both poets talk about immortality; Ted Hughes affirms that the ‘Crow’ (L21) is stronger than Death whereas Sylvia Plath assumes tht nothing can ‘cry them – the dead – up’ (L13) ‘from their fond, final, infamous decay’ (L14).

 

            Neither Ted Hughes nor Sylvia Plath uses the first person. They both talk about a third person – singular in Ted’s poem ‘owns’ (line 1 to line 6; lines 13 & 14) and ‘is’ (lines 15, 16 &19); and plural in Sylvia’s poem ‘they’ (lines 6, 7, 8 &12), ‘them’ (L13) and ‘their’ (L14).

            Ted Hughes uses strong, heavy hearing adjectives to describe Death, such as ‘scrawny’ (L1), ‘bristly scorched’ (L2), ‘unspeakable’ (L5) or ‘messy’ (L7) while, on the other hand, Sylvia Plath puts some soft, kinder hearing nouns and adjectives to describe the ‘ dead men’ (L3) – ‘in holy robes’ (L2), ‘render love’ (L3), ‘lulled’ (L4), ‘paternal’ (L6), ‘goodly loam’ (L9), ‘cradled’ (L9), ‘immaculate’ (L10), ‘loll’ (L12) and ‘angels’ (L13).

There is only a moment in Ted Hughes’ poem where the first person appears. It is in line 20 with ‘Me, evidently’. The presence of this pronoun associated to what is said by the ‘crow’ – a male symbol – allows the reader to think that the writer of the text is likely to be a man. However, in Plath’s poem, the absence of pronouns such as ‘we’, ‘our’ or ‘us’ joined to the use of adjectives related to childhood – such as ‘lulled’ (L4), ‘cradled’ (L9) or ‘immaculate’ (L10) – may allow us to think the poet could be a woman.

           

Finally, none of the poems has a rhyme scheme; both are free verses. Moreover, only Sylvia Plath uses the external structure of the sonnet to create her poem whereas Ted Hughes uses a complete free-dialogic structure.

 

 

PERSONAL OPINION

 

            I really enjoyed analysing both poems also I found them quite difficult to understand - especially Ted Hughes’ poem - because of the structure. Even more, Ted Hughes’ poem seems to be a dream because of the place where the examination takes place: at the womb-door, which is a non-existing place. Where is the door of a womb? And is it a place in which we could make/take an examination? I don’t think so. But it is what makes Ted Hughes poem more interesting.

 

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hughes, Ted. Examination at the Womb-Door. PoemHunter. Paris, France
06 – May – 2006

< http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=6616&poem=31441 >

Plath, Sylvia. The Dead. Wordplay Poetry Blog. David Jackson and Andy Derryberry. dave@artvilla.com; andy@artvilla.com 08 – May – 2006

< http://www.artvilla.com/wordplay/?p=490 >

Skea, Ann. Ph.D. Ted Hughes and Crow. ann@skea.com 08 – May – 2006

< http://www.zeta.org.au/~annskea/Trickstr.htm >

 

 

 

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