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 Gods 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 poems 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 Hughess 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 Plaths 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 Teds poem owns
(line 1 to line 6; lines 13 & 14) and is
(lines 15, 16 &19); and plural in Sylvias 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
Plaths 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 dont think so. But it is what
makes Ted Hughes poem more interesting.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hughes,
Ted. Examination at the Womb-Door.
PoemHunter.
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
>