"To Paint a Water Lily" by Ted Hughes

The true artist in “To Pain a Water Lily” is Ted Hughes. The descriptive language he used was so interactive that I have no choice but to say, “please don’t quit your day job.” The poem begins with a description of the lily leaves on the pond, “Roofs the pond’ chamber…” (2) makes me feel they are actually doing work!

“The flies furious arena: study” (3) – does he mean study the sound of them with your ears or the flies study in their arena? Either way, I the painting is making its way to reality. He wastes no time at all incorporating sound to tweak the senses, “And death-cries everywhere hereabouts” (10). By this time, I feel I am in the middle of a secluded forest with so much happening around me.

Of course he wouldn’t leave out the nemesis: “Prehistoric bedragonned times Crawl that darkness with Latin names Have evolved no improvements there, Jaws for heads, the set stare” (17-20) gives the image of the baddest crocodile in the land.

This poem was a treat, and more than a lesson in how to play words to mean more than what you expect them to. As for Hughes, I think the painting wouldn’t do his poem justice.