Daffodils

"Daffodils" focuses on the beginning of Hughes' union to Sylvia Plath and remembers their happier years. "Wedding-present scissors" The speaker refers to a pair of scissors, saying, "Finally, we were overwhelmed / And we lost our wedding-present scissors." (lines 51-52) Hughes references the loss of the wedding scissors to illustrate the loss of his marriage. At the end of the poem, he mentions the scissors again, "But somewhere your scissors remember. Wherever they are." (line 62) He closes the poem, addressing Plath and his promise to never forget her or the union they shared.

The speaker highlights the idea of memories and touches on the notion of death. In lines 24 -25, the speaker begins to realize that life is not everlasting and ends, just as quickly as the daffodils die. "We knew we'd live for ever. We had not learned / What a fleeting glance of the everlasting / Daffodils are." This harsh message sets the tone for the poem and allows the reader to understand the way Ted Hughes must have felt after all the loss he experienced in his lifetime.

"Daffodils" centre on the theme of the fleetingness of life. Hughes uses daffodils, which only live for a short period of time, as an analogy to the shortness of life. This theme can be seen in lines 25-28, "What a fleeting glance of the everlasting / Daffodils are. Never identified / The nuptial flight of the rarest ephemera - / Our own days!"

Hughes' use of imagery and his comparison to daffodils fully supports the underlying message of the poem, that life is not certain and can end abruptly. His final lines beautifully capture the feelings that come with losing someone close to you, "Here somewhere, blades wide open, / April by April / Sinking deeper / Through the sod - an anchor, a cross of rust." (lines 63-66) He explains his feeling of misery as a cross or anchor, that drags you down. Grief and sadness are feelings that do weigh you down and leave you feeling lonely and lost. Ted Hughes' impeccable use of imagery beautifully grasps the harsh truth of life and death.

metonymy

It is a figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it is closely associated. We can come across examples of metonymy both from literature and in everyday life.

Daffodils

Ted Hughes, a poet who has encountered death over and over, he wrote Daffodils for his deceased wife. This poem talks strictly about daffodil flowers and the remembrance of his wife Sylvia Plath.

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