Thistles
by Ted Hughes
Against the rubber tongues of cows and the hoeing hands of men
Thistles spike the summer air
And crackle open under a blue-black pressure.
Every one a revengeful burst
Of resurrection, a grasped fistful
Of splintered weapons and Icelandic frost thrust up
From the underground stain of a decayed Viking.
They are like pale hair and the gutturals of dialects.
Every one manages a plume of blood.
Then they grow grey like men.
Mown down, it is a feud. Their sons appear
Stiff with weapons, fighting back over the same ground.
Glossary
Rubber tongues of cows –Soft yet
persistent grazing.
Hoeing hands of men –Human
agricultural labour, suggesting the struggle to control unruly natural forces.
Thistles spike the summer air –
“Spike” evokes both the literal shape of thistles and their aggressive, defiant
nature.
Crackle open under a blue-black pressure
– Imagery of explosive growth or resistance, with “blue-black” hinting at storm
clouds, tension, or repressed violence.
Resurrection – Rebirth; even
after being destroyed, the thistles return, evoking persistence and cyclical
violence.
Grasped fistful of splintered weapons – Describes their jagged forms as warlike, weapons held in a fist.
Icelandic frost – Coldness and
ancestry; likely referencing Viking origins and the harsh northern landscapes,
tying thistles to ancient violence.
Underground stain of a decayed Viking
– A powerful metaphor of buried history and death, from which the thistles seem
to rise. Suggests warrior heritage and blood-soaked pasts.
Pale hair and the gutturals of dialects
– Compares thistle fuzz to Viking features (blond hair), and “gutturals” evokes
rough, throat-based sounds in Nordic languages.
Plume of blood – Possibly refers
to the plant’s sap, but likened to blood—it intensifies the image of living,
fighting entities.
Mown down – A brutal
image—evokes battle, massacre, and harvest.
Feud – Reinforces the idea of
generational warfare, passed on like an inherited curse.
Their sons appear / Stiff with weapons
– New growth is likened to armed descendants, continuing the legacy of
violence—there's no peace, only cycles.
Fighting back over the same ground
– Circular conflict. Suggests futility and recurrence of war, whether among
plants or people.
Explanation
Stanza 1
Against the rubber tongues of cows and the hoeing hands of men
Thistles spike the summer air
And crackle open under a blue-black pressure.
In this opening stanza, Ted
Hughes introduces the resilient and aggressive nature of thistles, portraying
them as defiant forces of nature that resist human and animal attempts to
suppress them. The “rubber tongues of cows” and the “hoeing hands of men” symbolize
the continual grazing by animals and cultivation by humans—both efforts to
dominate or tame the natural world. Despite this, the thistles “spike the
summer air,” a vivid image that suggests they pierce or disrupt the warm, calm
atmosphere with their sharp, thorny presence. The phrase “crackle open under a
blue-black pressure” adds an intense, almost explosive energy, implying a
stormy or brooding atmosphere that builds tension. The thistles are not passive
plants; they resist, erupt, and assert their presence violently, setting the
tone for the poem’s larger theme of natural and historical cycles of conflict
and resurgence.
Stanza 2
Every one a revengeful burst
Of resurrection, a grasped fistful
Of splintered weapons and Icelandic frost thrust up
This stanza evokes a powerful
image of violent rebirth and unresolved vengeance. Each figure or force
described is likened to a “revengeful burst,” suggesting sudden, explosive
energy driven by anger or a need for retribution. The resurrection mentioned is
not gentle or spiritual but forceful and aggressive, symbolized by a “grasped
fistful,” which implies intentional, clenched control—something seized rather
than received. What is grasped are “splintered weapons and Icelandic frost,”
combining the imagery of broken instruments of war with the harsh, cold
elements of a northern landscape. These elements, “thrust up,” rise violently
from the earth, as if the past refuses to stay buried. The stanza as a whole
suggests a return of pain, trauma, or conflict, embodied in imagery of war and
ice, rising with fury and purpose. It captures the sense that what was once
dead or dormant now returns, not peacefully, but with the sharp edge of revenge
and the chill of bitter memory.
Stanza 3
From the underground stain of a decayed Viking.
They are like pale hair and the gutturals of dialects.
Every one manages a plume of blood.
The stanza conjures a sense of haunting legacy, rooted in ancient and decaying origins. The phrase “from the underground stain of a decayed Viking” suggests that something is rising or emanating from a buried, forgotten past—perhaps literal remains or symbolic traces of a warrior culture marked by death, violence, and time’s erosion. The comparison “they are like pale hair and the gutturals of dialects” evokes ghostly remnants: “pale hair” may imply something frail and spectral, while “gutturals of dialects” references old, harsh, throat-based sounds of ancient languages, emphasizing a raw, primal connection to ancestry and speech. These rising presences, likely figurative or spiritual, are not passive—they each “manage a plume of blood,” a striking image suggesting active violence, vitality, or the ability to harm. A “plume of blood” can symbolize both nobility (as in a plume on a helmet) and injury, blending beauty and brutality. Together, the stanza paints a picture of how the buried past—linguistic, cultural, and martial—emerges in haunting, visceral forms that still wield power and violence in the present.
Stanza 4
Then they grow grey like men.
Mown down, it is a feud. Their sons appear
Stiff with weapons, fighting back over the same ground.
The stanza begins with a transformation: “Then they grow grey like men,” suggesting that these figures—perhaps warriors, ghosts, or symbols of conflict—age and wither like human beings, implying mortality and the passage of time. However, their aging does not bring peace. Instead, they are “mown down,” a phrase that evokes the brutal, indiscriminate destruction of battle, like crops harvested by a scythe. This violence is described as “a feud,” pointing to a deep-rooted, perhaps ancestral conflict—one that is not resolved but inherited. The cycle continues as “their sons appear,” now “stiff with weapons,” ready for battle. The stiffness could signify both readiness and rigidity—unquestioning obedience to inherited hatred or duty. These sons “fight back over the same ground,” emphasizing the tragic repetition of history: the same territory, the same bloodshed, the same grievances. The stanza powerfully conveys how violence perpetuates itself, passed down like a legacy, binding generations to an unending struggle that leads only to more loss.
Ted Hughes’s
poem Thistles is a powerful and tightly constructed piece that uses the
image of a simple weed to evoke themes of conflict, historical continuity, and
the indomitable cycle of nature. With vivid imagery and compressed language,
Hughes transforms the humble thistle into a symbol of ancient vengeance,
inherited violence, and inevitable resurrection.
Themes
- Cycle of Violence and
Resurrection
The poem portrays thistles as war-like figures that rise
again after being destroyed. This reflects the theme of repetition of
conflict across generations, much like feuds or wars that never truly end.
- Nature vs. Human Effort
Hughes presents nature as a force that resists human
control. Despite being grazed by cows or destroyed by hoes, the thistles
return. This tension between man’s attempts at domination and nature’s
resilience is central.
- Historical Memory and
Ancestral Legacy
Through references to “Vikings” and “Icelandic frost,”
Hughes connects the present with the distant past, implying that past
violence is embedded in the land, re-emerging in the form of these
aggressive plants.
- Masculinity and Warfare
The imagery is distinctly masculine and combative, with
thistles likened to “splintered weapons” and “fistfuls,” suggesting male
aggression, pride, and the warrior spirit.
Structure and Form
The poem
consists of three unrhymed tercets (three-line stanzas) followed by a
final quatrain. The lack of rhyme or regular meter gives it a harsh,
irregular rhythm that mirrors the jagged subject matter of thistles and
conflict. The free verse form reinforces a sense of unpredictability and
natural disorder, much like the uncontrollable resurgence of the thistles
themselves.
Style and Language
Hughes’s
style is compressed, vivid, and violent, marked by terse syntax and
dense metaphors. He frequently uses enjambment, allowing ideas to spill
over lines without pause, which creates a relentless, driving momentum.
The language
is striking and tactile, filled with hard consonants and guttural
sounds (e.g., "crackle", "spike", "burst",
"thrust") that mimic the physical toughness of the thistles and the
brutal imagery they evoke.
Tone and Mood
- Tone: The tone is grim, intense, and reverent,
almost mythic in its elevation of the thistles from simple weeds to
ancient warriors. There is also an undercurrent of awe and fatalism,
as if the speaker respects the thistles’ power even while recognizing
their destructiveness.
- Mood: The mood is ominous and combative,
with a sense of unease and relentless struggle. It evokes the atmosphere
of a battlefield—raw, unsettled, and bound to erupt again.
Literary Devices
- Metaphor: The thistles are persistently metaphorized
as warriors—“fistful of splintered weapons,” “sons…stiff with weapons.”
- Personification: Thistles “spike,” “crackle,” and “fight
back,” granting them human-like will and purpose.
- Alliteration: Phrases like “hoeing hands,” and “blue-black
pressure,” reinforce the poem’s rhythmic
harshness.
- Imagery: Vivid sensory images like “plume of blood”
and “Icelandic frost” appeal to sight, touch, and temperature, creating a
chilling, martial landscape.
- Historical Allusion: The mention of “Vikings” and “Icelandic
frost” connects the natural world to a specific historical narrative of
conquest and endurance.
- Symbolism: The thistles become a symbol of cyclical
revenge, generational memory, and indestructible nature.
Conclusion
Thistles is a tightly wrought, symbolically rich poem that
exemplifies Ted Hughes’s fascination with the primal forces of nature and
violence. Through a seemingly simple subject, Hughes conjures a mythic vision
of ongoing conflict, tying together plant biology, human history, and ancestral
memory. The poem's sharp diction, relentless tone, and martial imagery leave a
lasting impression of nature as both ancient and ever-renewing—a world where
even weeds bear weapons and carry old feuds into new seasons.
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