"Crow's Fall" by Ted Hughes

Analysis of Hughes's "Crow's Fall":                                                                         

Crow's Fall

When Crow was white he decided the sun was too white.

He decided it glared much too whitely.

He decided to attack it and defeat it.

He got his strength up flush and in full glitter.

He clawed and fluffed his rage up.

He aimed his beak direct at the sun's centre.

He laughed himself to the centre of himself

And attacked.

At his battle cry trees grew suddenly old,

Shadows flattened.

But the sun brightened—

It brightened, and Crow returned charred black.

He opened his mouth but what came out was charred black.

"Up there," he managed,

"Where white is black and black is white, I won.".                                                                                          

  About the Author:- 

Ted Hughes was an English poet and he was born in 1930; he received his formal education at Cambridge,and he even served in the Royal Air Force.Hughes married American poet Sylvia Plath in 1956. Hughes and Plath had two children, but the majority of their marriage was rocky and unstable. Plath ended her life in 1963. Hughes served as Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death of Cancer in 1998. "Birthday Letters",the last book of poetry published before his death, explored the complex relationship he shared with Plath.                                                                                          

About the Poem:-

 Here, in this poem,Hughes depicts the post world war English society."Crow's Fall" is a poem from his poetry collection "Crow:From the Life and the Songs of Crow" which was published in 1970.

Annotations:-And Explanations

The poem starts with a labyrinthine phrase"When Crow was white" in the first line. Was ever Crow white? The answer is no except American genetic mutated Crow.In America a species of Crows are white.

 American Crow has all white feathers and pink feet, legs and bill. These are all features of albino birds; however, a full albino bird should have red or pink eyes while this bird’s eyes. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology explains: “Albinism is a genetic mutation that prevents the production of melanin in the body. Albinistic birds have pink eyes because without melanin in the body, the only color in the eyes comes from the blood vessels behind the eyes.”

Here, white crow indicates the haughty humans of the poet's contemporary society. White Crow generally contrary of nature. It indirectly indicates the corrupted and abnormal society where humanity has no place to stay. The white crow shows us the hypocrisy of human being. They forget their their colour of humanity and trying to ascend themselves above each other.

Biblical Notes:-

 Crow series of poems achieve a sort of sacredness of religion by its continuous allusion to Biblical narratives in content and style. The fall of Adam and Eve was caused by pride. Similarly, Crow's egoistic self leads him to challenge the Sun. Legends say that Crow was white like the Sun before Apollo's curse fell on him.

Apart from the Biblical overtones, Crow's fall can be traced back to Greek myths as Hirschberg points out:-'Crow's Fall' draws upon two Hellenic myths. Both involve Apollo the God of the Sun whose spiritual significance in mythology is identified with light which displaces darkness. In one story, during the war against the giants, Apollo transforms himself into a White Crow. A second tale presents the Crow as being originally white; Apollo , however becomes angry at the bird for bearing the news of adultery committed by princess Koronis and turned Crow black.

Hughes says that Crow returns black and charred after his encounter with the Sun. Still,the egocentric Crow refuses to except defeat by declaring that there is really no difference between opposites like white and black or victory and defeat. Though it can be viewed as Crow's act of evasion,it explicates the basic nature of violence in the poem as a paradox of creation and destruction. The convergence of opposites usually conceived to be an impossibility becomes a possible reality in Crow's philosophy. Just as Adam and Eve were punished after their fall, Crow too punished by ostracizing his from the company of other birds and by assigning him to the realm of death dominated by garbage and waste.

"Sun was too white '/'it glared too much whitely' - sun shines too much.

"to attack it and defeat it"- to outshine the sun.

"At his battle cry"- as the battle starts.

        (Please Subscribe English Literature Gallery              to get best notes and solutions.)