THL3703
Assignment 2
Semester 2
Unique No: 754219
DUE 15 September 2025
, ASSIGNMENT 02 (Written Assignment)
Due date: 15 September 2025 Unique number: 754219
PART 1, QUESTION 1
Metaphor Analysis of Ted Hughes’s “Sketching a Thatcher”
Introduction
One of the most distinctive features of poetry, as emphasised in the THL3703 study
guide, is its reliance on non-literal language. Poets employ figurative language to
intensify meaning, create layered associations, and convey realities that would be
inaccessible through literal expression alone. Metaphor, in particular, allows poets to
map one domain of experience onto another, generating fresh insights into both. The
study guide insists that poetry does not merely describe the world; it creates a world
through its metaphorical structures.
In Ted Hughes’s poem “Sketching a Thatcher”, metaphor is not simply ornamental but
constitutive of the poem’s meaning. Hughes’s figurative choices create a complex web
of local and global relationships that speak to the harshness of physical labour, the
violence of human interaction with the natural world, and broader ecological and
existential themes. The poem is deeply physical, almost visceral, and its imagery
continually merges the human body with the environment, suggesting that human
survival and creativity are inseparable from natural processes.
This essay will analyse the metaphorical language in “Sketching a Thatcher”, paying
attention to how local metaphors interact to form global metaphorical structures. It will
also examine how focus expressions and argument structures qualify tenor and vehicle
relationships. Finally, the discussion will situate the poem within Hughes’s wider body of
, work, highlighting continuities in his ecological imagination and his dismantling of
human exceptionalism.
Local Metaphorical Relationships
At the local level, Hughes’s metaphors are densely physical and tactile. The thatcher is
described through animalistic and elemental imagery, where his actions are mapped
onto the behaviours of beasts and forces of nature. For instance, the thatcher’s hands
are not simply tools of a craftsman; they become claws, talons, or extensions of the
natural world itself. Here, the vehicle is the animalistic image (claw/talon), and the tenor
is the human labour of thatching.
This creates a metaphorical relationship that simultaneously dehumanises and elevates
the worker. On the one hand, the thatcher is depicted as less than human, driven by
brute force rather than refined skill. On the other hand, the image suggests a primal
rootedness in nature’s rhythms. Such metaphors reflect Hughes’s tendency to collapse
the distinction between human and non-human, as seen throughout his oeuvre.
Another local metaphor involves the roof itself, which is rendered not as an inert
structure but as a living body. The layering of reeds onto the roof evokes imagery of
flesh, skin, or fur, suggesting that the house is being clothed or animated through the
thatcher’s work. The tenor here is the roof, while the vehicle is the animal or human
body. This metaphor aligns with Hughes’s ecological poetics: human constructions are
not separate from nature but intimately bound to it.
Hughes also deploys metaphors of combat and violence. The thatcher’s actions are
described in terms of battle with the resistant material. The reed, far from being passive,
is figured as a living opponent. This suggests that human labour is never neutral but
involves confrontation, domination, and even exploitation. Such metaphors resonate
with the study guide’s emphasis on how poetry often constructs meaning by dramatizing
tensions between tenor and vehicle rather than smoothing them over.
Interaction of Local Arguments and Focus Expressions
Assignment 2
Semester 2
Unique No: 754219
DUE 15 September 2025
, ASSIGNMENT 02 (Written Assignment)
Due date: 15 September 2025 Unique number: 754219
PART 1, QUESTION 1
Metaphor Analysis of Ted Hughes’s “Sketching a Thatcher”
Introduction
One of the most distinctive features of poetry, as emphasised in the THL3703 study
guide, is its reliance on non-literal language. Poets employ figurative language to
intensify meaning, create layered associations, and convey realities that would be
inaccessible through literal expression alone. Metaphor, in particular, allows poets to
map one domain of experience onto another, generating fresh insights into both. The
study guide insists that poetry does not merely describe the world; it creates a world
through its metaphorical structures.
In Ted Hughes’s poem “Sketching a Thatcher”, metaphor is not simply ornamental but
constitutive of the poem’s meaning. Hughes’s figurative choices create a complex web
of local and global relationships that speak to the harshness of physical labour, the
violence of human interaction with the natural world, and broader ecological and
existential themes. The poem is deeply physical, almost visceral, and its imagery
continually merges the human body with the environment, suggesting that human
survival and creativity are inseparable from natural processes.
This essay will analyse the metaphorical language in “Sketching a Thatcher”, paying
attention to how local metaphors interact to form global metaphorical structures. It will
also examine how focus expressions and argument structures qualify tenor and vehicle
relationships. Finally, the discussion will situate the poem within Hughes’s wider body of
, work, highlighting continuities in his ecological imagination and his dismantling of
human exceptionalism.
Local Metaphorical Relationships
At the local level, Hughes’s metaphors are densely physical and tactile. The thatcher is
described through animalistic and elemental imagery, where his actions are mapped
onto the behaviours of beasts and forces of nature. For instance, the thatcher’s hands
are not simply tools of a craftsman; they become claws, talons, or extensions of the
natural world itself. Here, the vehicle is the animalistic image (claw/talon), and the tenor
is the human labour of thatching.
This creates a metaphorical relationship that simultaneously dehumanises and elevates
the worker. On the one hand, the thatcher is depicted as less than human, driven by
brute force rather than refined skill. On the other hand, the image suggests a primal
rootedness in nature’s rhythms. Such metaphors reflect Hughes’s tendency to collapse
the distinction between human and non-human, as seen throughout his oeuvre.
Another local metaphor involves the roof itself, which is rendered not as an inert
structure but as a living body. The layering of reeds onto the roof evokes imagery of
flesh, skin, or fur, suggesting that the house is being clothed or animated through the
thatcher’s work. The tenor here is the roof, while the vehicle is the animal or human
body. This metaphor aligns with Hughes’s ecological poetics: human constructions are
not separate from nature but intimately bound to it.
Hughes also deploys metaphors of combat and violence. The thatcher’s actions are
described in terms of battle with the resistant material. The reed, far from being passive,
is figured as a living opponent. This suggests that human labour is never neutral but
involves confrontation, domination, and even exploitation. Such metaphors resonate
with the study guide’s emphasis on how poetry often constructs meaning by dramatizing
tensions between tenor and vehicle rather than smoothing them over.
Interaction of Local Arguments and Focus Expressions
