Pike By Langston Hughes

The poem is about a pike, and the feelings that the poet holds towards them. He shows how they are brutal yet beautiful creatures. It appears to be a poem about nature but it does not follow the underlying romantic theme that most nature poems do. This poem shows the darker side of nature which is beautiful but terrifying and powerful.

Hughes uses the image of a baby pike to represent the fact that they are already beautiful from birth and that there is no improvements that need to be made. This is shown when he says ‘three inches long, perfect.’ The use of a caesura before perfect puts emphasis on how they have no imperfections. The poet also uses the word ‘tigering’ which links to the image of a tiger. A tiger could be considered by some

This is shown when he says ‘A hundred feet long in their world.” This may be a metaphor for how the pike is dominant, because even though they may be small in relation to the pond they can be sensed by the other animals as something to be feared even from large distances. The poet uses descriptive language to show how dangerous the pike is. This is exemplified when he says that ‘the gills kneading quietly, and the pectorals.” This shows that the Pike is a killing machine with mechanical precision and raw power. the use of the verb and adverb kneading quietly’ shows its

this is illustrated when he says "a life subdued to its instrument." This shows that the pike functions as a ruthless fish because of its design and that maybe the Pike is perfectly built for killing and thus killing is the only thing it knows how to do and is best at. The poet uses the image of a ‘monastery’ and ‘England’ to show how ancient and wise the fish are. In addition the poet says that the pike ‘rose slowly towards [him] watching.’ This shows how to pike sees him as prey and is slowly approaching him ready to strike. He does not hold the pike accountable for this as he knows that this is what the fish was born to do.

The poem’s punctuation is regular at first as the punctuation stops at the end of each stanza. This gives the poem a restricted feel as if the fish is being kept in control but in later stanzas enjambment is used to show how it is impossible to keep the fish in control as they are so powerful. The poet also uses caesuras to place emphasis on certain words and phrases. This is shown in the first line where there is a pause after ‘pike’ this captures the readers attention and shows how much respect the poet places with pike as he wants all the emphasis to be on the