Okay, so I find it difficult to actually choose favourites,
as all poetry is amazing… but on this occasion I decided that a poem I actually
enjoyed reading and analysing was ‘The Rag Rug’ by Ted Hughes. Mr Hughes was a
English poet and a children’s writer who was also the British Poet Laureate (he
actually deserved it in my opinion, unlike some other poet Laureate’s there
have been.) Hughes was married to a gal called Sylvia Plath whom most of his
poetry is about. She suffered from serious depression and ended up taking her
own life. Hughes received a lot of stick for this and was held responsible for
the taking of her own life. The time in which Hughes was writing his poems was
in the post-modernism era. At this time, poets used fragmentation and extreme
subjectivity in their poems. This era is also heavily characterised by the Second
World War and aspects of this are reflected within Hughes poetry.
Mr Hughes looking nice and smiley
MODELS. Hughes and his gal Sylvia
Right, so ‘The Rag Rug’ doesn’t sound like the most
interesting poem, but the ambiguity and open interpretation for the reader is
probably the main reason why I like it so much. Hughes is clever in the way he
presents the reader with the events in the poem so that they can make of it
what they will. It’s quite a long poem, so I’m not going to put it in here
(research it in your own time – active learning at its best) but I will go onto
explain my own interpretations of the poem and give a bit of background knowledge.
For me an important thing about this poem is the idea of what’s on the surface
and what Hughes could potentially be talking about. So at first glance, it
would seem that Hughes is speaking of his wife Sylvia making a ‘Rag Rug’ which
someone had once made for her and so it motivated her to make her own. As we go
through the poem there are common things that pop up such as ‘serpents’ ‘snakes’
and ‘coils.’ It was this that made me think, holl up, maybe Hughes is trying to
tell us something different. After reading it again and going along with my
super cool highlighters, I got the impression that the poem was about Sylvia
and this rug, however, it’s what the rug symbolises that Hughes is trying to
express. For me, my interpretations of the poem are as follows:
·
The title to start is simplistic which raises
the idea that it’s got to have some sort of hidden meaning (it’s a poem, it was
never going to be straight forward)
·
The references to “lightning” could be seen to
refer to Hughes previous poem ‘The Tender Place’ which revolves around the
electric shock treatment that Sylvia receives in order to treat her depression
·
“some tapeworm of the psyche” it was this line
that was the winning line for me as it made something click in my mind, it raised
the idea that maybe the process of making this rug removes the bad from Sylvia
as she exerts her pain and suffering from her depression into the rug itself. And
the same applies for the line “it freed me. It freed you” this as well gives
the impression that the rug is a release and an escape from her depression and
so the rug holds all the troubles and releases her and Hughes from it all. As Hughes
continues with the poem we get the idea that this release from her depression
due to the rug is like a perfect place for him and Sylvia as they don’t have to
worry about anything it’s just them two
·
There is a stanza further in the poem which
starts “later(not much later) which shows some graphic imagery and hence voices
a frustrating experience for the pair as they try and battle her depression
·
The several references to a serpent or snake
became clear for me in the last line of the poem “it survived our Eden” this is
where the penny dropped for me as I was able to view the poem in a way that I understood.
I therefore inferred that the snake represents the snake in the Garden of Eden
in the Bible and hence the snake in the poem represents something bad. The snake
alone has some connotations within this poem as it also links in with the rug. So
for me, the way I see it is the snake and the rug are one and they both
represent her depression. The fact that the snake keeps “coiling” around their
relationship gives the idea that it restricts and suffocates them and this
would make sense as if we think of the snake as her depression, it could be
Hughes way of showing just how much of an effect her depression is having on the
both of them
·
In terms of structure also, the disorganised structure
and fragmented, jaggered sentence structures, emphasise the frustrations Hughes
is experiencing.
·
Hughes is extremely skilled in the way he wrote
this poem, he is able to create tension in the right areas and express his own
frustrations at the same time
·
REMEMBER THOUGH; everybody has their own interpretations,
nobody is right or wrong in literature, and that is the beauty of it all. The poem
is essentially what you make it.
To set a bit of context, just imagine that the woman in this photo is Sylvia with her serpent/snake which represents her depression
In terms of comparing with other poems, the title of the
poem shows differences in time and eras, for example, in John Donne’s poetry,
he wrote about the Sun and used astrological features to speak of love or
issues within his poetry, however here, all these years later, Hughes’ poem
speak of a Rug. This just shows the differences in time as back in Donne’s day,
a rug wouldn't have been seen as something worthy to write about.
The presentation of love in this poem is different from
that in poems such as ‘first love’ by John Clare. Within this poem, Clare
speaks of the beauty of love essentially and how it sweeps him off his feet
when he meets this Purdy lady, whereas in Hughes poetry, his presentation of
love essentially is shown using the Rug as considering the Rug is a wedge in their
relationship, he still continued to love Sylvia and stand by her and this is
what he presents in the poem. However, from his other poem “last letter” we see
that maybe Hughes intentions weren’t all good however, who are we to judge ay?
To sum up why I like the poem so much (if I haven’t already),
I’d say that I like Hughes style. I enjoyed the ‘puzzle’ effect he created in
this poem, as he left it totally down to the reader to interpret what they want
from the poem. As well as this I feel he was able to talk about a difficult
issue that he and his wife had faced by presenting it with a simple object,
such as that of a Rug. In my own personal opinion I feel that Hughes is a very
talented individual and this poem is an excellent presentation of how good his poetry
really is.
Thanks for reading guys, Despicable Lea 
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