a memory

the text of the poem is on page 191 of your books

some introductory thoughts on what the poem is about

This poem is from Ted Hughes's 1979 collection which he called Moortown Diary.  It features a considerable number of poems about farming life in Devon, where he lived at this period in his life.  Many of the poems commemorate the life of Jack Orchard, father of Hughes's second wife Carol.  Jack Orchard was a farmer for the whole of his career.  The poems present aspects of rural life and farming, and, as is often typical of Hughes, centre on the processes of nature as they define life in the countryside.

The poem presents a timeless picture of someone shearing a sheep - this action has been done for countless centuries, and involves cutting the sheep's wool.  It's a difficult, physical job, as the shearer has simultaneously to control the sheep (who instinctively wants to run away) and to cut the wool from its body.  In the case of this poem, the powerful shearer is Jack Orchard, poignantly signalled as the subject through the title 'A memory'.  The memory is of a powerful man at work; he is now dead.

The personal dimension of the poem is underlined in the way that the speaker refers to the deceased man as 'you'.  The sense of the man's life as an era, now over, is clear when Hughes talks about Orchard in the past tense 'you were ...'.  Orchard's life is now past, a thing to be recalled, but at the same time, the action of a man shearing a sheep is an timeless one, giving Orchard a place in an ongoing cycle of life, continuous, rather like the constant burning of his chain-smoked cigarettes.

There's a real sense of the speaker celebrating the power and accomplishment of this shearer's work.  It's a poem about a traditional job being done in an expert way, so expert in fact, that the shearer can simultaneously shear the sheep and smoke a cigarette.  At the end of the poem, the speaker notes that the shearer chain-smokes, deftly, having 'mastered' both the animal and the task of cutting the wool from its body.

This poem celebrates a traditional rural skill - a crucial part of a sheep farmer's life and annual routine.  It also celebrates the kind of physical strength and accomplishment which marked out those who engaged in this sort of work.

You can see sheep shearing done the traditional way, by hand, in this video * from a farmer in north Wales.

some questions to consider

• 'Powerful as a horse' - a man is being described here: what's the effect of this phrase?

• Why does Hughes underline the contrasting aspects of the experience in the barn - 'sweating and freezing'?

• Notice how Hughes draws a simile from the world of farming: the man managing the writhing sheep is 'like tying some oversize, overweight, spilling bale' [of hay].  What other similes might Hughes have used?

• Why is there so much emphasis on Jack Orchard's cigarette?  (Remember that this poem dates from an age when cigarette smoking was very widespread, when people were far less aware of the acute dangers of the habit.)

• Why does the speaker compare Jack to a 'collier'?  And what does a 'face-worker' do?  (clue - think about the phrase 'coal-face')

• How does Hughes represent the immense difficulty of shearing the sheep?  What does the phrase 'solid hour' suggest to you?

• How does Hughes bring Jack Orchard's physical features alive in the poem: note all the description of the man himself.

• Why is the sheared sheep described as 'a peeled sheep'?  What sort of fruit or vegetable does this phrase suggest to your imagination?

• What does the cycle of cigarette-smoking suggest to you?  Is there a possible symbolism or parallel to be considered?

• How do you respond to the free form of this poem?  Why might Hughes have chosen to set out his poetic 'memory' in this way, and what impact does his choice have on the poem's overall effect?

• Have you watched someone at work, doing a really physically difficult task?  How would you go about describing that person in a poem?  Where would you go for imagery to reveal the difficulty of what they do?  

• This poem is one of a number commemorating the life of Jack Orchard - what features of the man's character do you think this poem presents?  

some creative writing to help you understand the poem more deeply

• Why not try writing a poem about a person doing their job?  Which person might you select, and what would you choose to emphasise in your poem?

other lovely poems about rural life, traditional activities and related topics

Felix Randal * by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Shearing at Castlereagh * by A B 'Banjo' Patterson

Digging * by Seamus Heaney

First Shear * by Keira Hall

A very good podcast discussion * of the poem from a teacher and two students at Bristol Grammar School.

An interesting analysis * of poems in the volume Moortown Diary.

photo

Sheep, near Cuckmere Haven, Sussex, England - photo by James Harding.