A* Poetry Essay for IGCSE Literature: Football at Slack by Ted Hughes

What makes a good poetry analysis essay?

This is a poetry essay I wrote as an exemplar for my Year 11 Group Class, studying for Cambridge IGCSE English Literature 0475.

The key areas I tried to focus on whilst writing this essay were:

• Referring back to the question throughout
• Creating a thesis statement
• Including many embedded quotations
• Analysing a range of features of language, form and structure
• Considering how language and structural techniques interplay to create a deeper meaning

Read Football at Slack

You can find a full copy of the poem here: Ted Hughes – Football at Slack | Genius

How does Ted Hughes celebrate human spirit in Football at Slack?

Hughes explores the celebration of human spirit in Football at Slack by revealing the Yorkshire men to be at one with the wild and tempestuous nature found in the British countryside. Through this poem, Hughes reveals the strength and resilience of the human spirit embodied by the men.

The title may initially call to mind the “beautiful game” – football as a deeply loved British sport. Furthermore, Slack is a reference to a hamlet in the Yorkshire moors, locating this poem in the depths of the British countryside. This situates the poem within Hughes’ typical thematic concerns of humanity’s relationship with nature.

Through the use of a free verse structure, Hughes suggests the unpredictability of the game, the storm and, more broadly, life itself. The refusal to have a set rhyme scheme or metre likewise mirrors the unpredictable blows of life or the game of football itself. Despite this uncertainty, the men persevere, described as “merry-coloured men”, with the word merry having connotations of festivities and Christmas, calling to mind the earlier mention of their “bunting colours”, similarly associated with British street parties. Hence, although the structure may suggest unpredictability, the tone is still optimistic, as Hughes offers an image of joy in uncertainty, thereby suggesting the importance of optimism and perseverance.

Language choices further enhance Hughes’ celebration of the human spirit. Hughes uses a semantic field of movement with words such as: plunging, blown, bounced, jumped, spouted, blew, leapt, sank, bicycled, and flew. These active words are also relatively simple diction, usually no more than two syllables, and many use plosive sounds — together, these techniques suggest a primal sense of joy in sport experienced by the men. It is also notable that Hughes further uses a semantic field of water, with words such as spouter, rain, plastered, puddle, etc. Whilst water and storms may typically be associated with pessimism and deeds gone wrong, Hughes subverts the reader’s expectations by associating the storm with gleeful optimism, as the men “bob” up from the rainwater, “washed and happy”. This imagery may be akin to baptism, suggesting the cleansing power of the rain. Alternatively, it could be associated with a childlike joy, such as idyllic childhood memories of going swimming, and thus suggest the power of nature to invigorate the human soul. The poem ends on a striking image, in which Hughes personifies the sun as “lift[ing] the cloud’s edge, to watch them”. The sun may be a symbol of the divine, or God, and may suggest that the men’s spirits are so exuberant that even the sun sits up to take notice of them.

Finally, Hughes uses structural features to enhance his message of the boundless nature of the human spirit. For example, just as the men “fly” through the air, Hughes uses enjambment to mirror their flight – the words likewise fly off the end of each line. The use of the dash is significant in the line “the ball blew away downwind –“. Here, the dash at the end of the line creates a moment of pause, tension and suspense, and may mirror the ball suspended in the air. Hughes, therefore, takes the reader into the tension and excitement of this football game, allowing us to experience the heart-pounding adrenaline that the men and the crowd are likely feeling.

In conclusion, Hughes uses a traditional setting of British men playing football in a rainstorm to explore how the Yorkshire men thrive in their communities, at one with the natural world. Ultimately, the poem becomes a powerful metaphor for human resilience, suggesting that joy and strength can be found even in the most turbulent conditions.