The Warm and the Cold

Analysis

Ted Hughes
• English poet and author → 1930-1998
• His poetry was largely influenced by the animals and landscape of
Yorkshire, England.
• Many of his poems deal with the natural world which, for him,
represented qualities such as beauty, violence, and the survival instinct.
• His tone was often harsh and his imagery brilliant.

Characteristics of this poem

 'The Warm and the Cold' is taken from Hughes's collection Season Songs - a diary of the seasons
in a form of poetry that is very close to a song.
 This particular poem is lyrical – it has a structure that feels very musical, with alternating verse
and chorus sections.
 The verse sections are the four-line sections that describe the effect of icy winter.
 The chorus sections are the eight-line sections that describe how animals adapt to the cold.
 The last seven lines are like the final coda (end part) of a piece of music – a single line
sandwiched between two three-line stanzas.
 The poem is set in the countryside (in nature) during winter.

Stanza Analysis
Stanza 1: Evening is approaching and with it the intense coldness that covers the trees and roads
and hills, but the animals are safe and warm, sheltered away and protected by their natural habitat.

Stanza 2: The cold gets worse, but other (different) animals are also safe and secure.

Stanza 3: Although the moonlit world is covered by a film of frost, still more animals are oblivious to
the cold, snug in their winter homes.

Stanzas 4-6: It is so cold that the moon herself is frightened. This small stanza reveals the
consequences of such a cold night on nature and those who are exposed to it. There is then an
image of a falling star, which shows yet another consequence of the freezing cold for those

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exposed to it: death. A negative image is given of humans sweltering in their artificial warmth. The
warmth for the farmers is not a comfort in contrast to the harshness of the cold, the way the other
examples of warmth have represented protection and home throughout this poem. The farmers
appear to be almost roasting under the heat and pressure of hoping their livestock and crops will
survive the cold night, whilst they are in the warmth of their homes.

Figures of Speech
Simile:
 The 'freezing dusk' is compared, in similes, to 'a slow trap of steel', and 'a nut screwed tight'.
 The world in the moonlight is compared to 'a mammoth of ice'.
 Each animal mentioned in the poem is given a simile
Metaphor:
 A metaphor is used to describe the spectacular night: 'the starry aeroplane / Of the soaring
night'
Personification:
 The landscape is personified: 'trees and hills and all That can no longer feel'.
 As is the moon, which due to the cold 'has lost her wits'.

Form and Structure

The poem has a regular form

 The poem is made up of 43 lines

 It has three stanzas of twelve lines
 Within each of the first three stanzas, the first four lines describe the cold and the following
eight lines describe the warm
 In the last seven lines, the form opens up (three lines – one line – three lines) which gives a
slowing down effect and separates the animals from the humans
The poem has a regular rhyme scheme

 Each of the first three stanzas has an abcb defe ghih rhyme scheme
 The rhyming of the last line of each three-line stanza in the last seven lines links the moon’s
‘wits’ with the farmers’ ‘spits’
The poem has a regular rhythm
 “On trees and roads and hills and all
That can no longer feel”

The form adds to the meaning of the poem in that the regularity of the first three stanzas suggests
that, in nature, there is order, balance and harmony. It also conveys the patterns of the seasons
and the predictability of animal behaviour. The structure of the first three stanzas is used to
focus the reader's attention on this comparison by first offering an image of extreme cold and
contrasting this with the animals. Using twice as many lines to describe the warm emphasises the

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warm over the cold and suggests that the cold can be overcome. The change of pattern in the last
seven lines emphasises the contrast between humans and animals and suggests a change in season
(the end of Winter). The rhyme in the last seven lines suggests that the farmers’ artificial warmth is
absurd.

Analysis:
 The poem is about how nature adapts easily to adverse weather, and about how man suffers in
it.
 It focuses on the very coldest part of winter and makes extensive use of similes.
 All of the animal comparisons are positive; they are all content in their natural environment. It is
only the farmers, sweltering in their artificial warmth, who are compared to something negative.
 The poet describes how various wild animals find different kinds of shelter in the countryside.
 There is a turn or twist towards the end of the poem when he shifts his attention to humans.

Tone
 The tone in the first three stanzas is calm and reverent. The animals seem warm and
comfortable despite the freezing temperatures.
 In the last seven lines, the tone is comic as the potentially grotesque image of the tortured
farmers emphasises the absurdity of their artificial warmth in contrast to the natural warmth of
the animals.

Language
 The contrast that we first see in the title (warm/cold) is continued throughout the poem: we are
presented with a description of the cold landscape first, then read of the animals who remain
warm even in the depths of winter
 As the poem moves on, the images of the sheltering creatures move from beautifully simple
comparisons to more unusual but effective ones.
 The cold is described as a steel trap, a tightly screwed nut, and a steel vice. All of these are
industrial images, which suggest a tight grip of cold on the world.
 There is the idea of a mammoth's being frozen solid into a block of ice. This is hyperbole
(exaggeration) as it suggests the return of the Ice Age.

Glossary:
Dusk: after sunset and before night-time
Carp: type of large freshwater fish
Badger: short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae, which also includes the otters, polecats,
weasels, and wolverines.
Viol: a musical instrument similar to a violin

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Trout: freshwater fish
Hare: a fast-running, long-eared mammal that resembles a large rabbit, having very long hind legs
and typically found in grassland or open woodland.
Mammoth: a type of large, hairy elephant with long tusks that curved upwards – now extinct
Vice: a metal tool with moveable jaws that are used to clamp an object firmly in place
Cod: a large fish that lives in the northern Atlantic Ocean – often caught and eaten
Tide-rip: an area of rough water caused by one current flowing across another current, or by a
current moving over an uneven bottom
Score: a document showing all the notes of a piece of music
Jig: a type of lively dance or music
Flimsy: insubstantial or easily damaged
Spits: a thin pointed stick that is used for holding meat over a fire to cook it

Questions
1. What pattern can you identify in the poem? Look at the animals described by the poet for clues:
2. Explain the similes in the following lines: 5-6, 17-18, 25-26, 35-36. (4x2)
3. Explain the effectiveness of the simile in lines 41-43 AND explain how this simile differs from the
rest of the similes in the poem. (4)
4. What point does Hughes make about the difference between humans and animals? (2)
5. How do the form and structure of the poem contribute to its meaning? (6)
6. Why is line 40 on its own? (2)
7. Find and explain one example each of a metaphor and personification. (4)