2006B Poem “To Paint a Water Lily” (Ted Hughes)

      There is tremendous patience and skill when it comes to painting. It often reflects the authors tone and that reflects the speaker's attitude.
     The speaker sees nature as a constant battle for life. " Under the trees. There are battle-shouts
And death-cries everywhere hereabout." This direct characterization shows that the speakers attitude is survival of the fittest. This is because the dragonfly must protect itself everyday against a new opponent.
      Ted Hughes has a complex tasks because there is a lot of activity going on in this poem. His tasks is to capture every detail for the painting. He uses the speaker to show this because the speaker's tone is hard. He must try to paint something with a lot of activity around the piece.
     The tone of this poem is complex because Ted must have his speaker show that it is hard to paint a picture.