RELIC

HOW DOES TED HUGHES BRING OUT THE BRUTALITY OF NATURE/DEATH/THE

TRANSIENCE OF LIFE?

HOOKED QUOTE -“CONTINUE THE BEGINNING.”

Death marks the “continuation” of “the beginning”, which in the context of the poem,
“Relic”, denotes that the vicious circle of life goes on and on, signifying that creation and
destruction are inevitable parts of an ongoing, infinite cycle in the natural world, and that
there is no ultimate finality; rather, there is renewal and transformation, thereby displaying
brutality of death.

SYNOPSIS :- "Relic" by “Ted Hughes” is a free-verse poem that explores the relentless cycle
of life and death in the natural world. The poem portrays the sea as a destructive force, and
a jawbone as a symbol of this eternal cycle, where everyone gets drawn in eventually and
death marks a new beginning.

LINK BACK :- leaving the readers in the mood of intrigue and creating gory impressions of
death over life.

THESIS:- Ted Hughes, in “Relic”, employs the theme of the death’s ruthlessness, symbolism,
and form and structure.

LINK BACK: It makes the readers understand the tone of contemplation, and reminds us of
the cruelty of nature.

THEME OF DEATH’S RUTHLESSNESS:

In "Relic," Ted Hughes lays bare the unrelenting and brutal force of nature, death, creating
its gory impressions. Through the image of the sea's relentless breakers, described as
"crabs, dogfish, broken by the breakers or tossed," Hughes conveys a scene of destruction
that is both natural and necessary for the cycle of life. The breakers are not mere waves but
agents of nature's harshness, breaking down life to its bare components, indifferent to the
suffering and violence they impart. The imagery of the sea's powerful waves demonstrates
death’s atrocity, indiscriminately tearing apart the bodies of the sea's inhabitants in a
display of its unstoppable force, thereby leaving the readers astonished and casting beastly
impressions of death.

The poem's stark depiction of isolation beneath the waves, "The deeps are cold: / In that
darkness camaraderie does not hold," further highlights the brutal reality of life in the
natural world. Hughes emphasizes that in the vast, frigid deep, there is no companionship
or comfort; instead, there is a void where only survival matters, and it often comes at the
expense of others. This chilling line reinforces the notion that nature is unsentimental, and
life within it is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. The cold depths serve as a metaphor
for the absence of warmth in the natural order, where the struggle for existence trumps
any semblance of solidarity or kinship, creating an empathetic mood for the readers and
reminding us of the gory nature of death over life.

Finally, Ted Hughes exemplifies the unyielding harshness of nature through the symbolic
transformation of life to death to artifact. In the line, “Eat and are finished and the jawbone
comes to the beach,” the poet distills the essence of natural selection and the survival of
the fittest. Here, the jawbone's arrival on the beach signifies the end of its cycle as a
predator and its beginning as a relic of the past. This progression from hunter to the
hunted, and eventually to a mere object, underscores the transient nature of life and the
impartiality with which nature dispenses both life and death. It's a powerful reminder for
the readers that in nature's grand scheme, every creature is both participant and victim in
the ongoing saga of life, where brutality is not an anomaly but an integral part of the life-
death continuum. Therefore, casting frightful impressions of death.

SYMBOLISM:

In "Relic" by Ted Hughes, the ocean is not just a backdrop but a symbol of nature's
indifferent cycle of life and death. The waves, described as "broken by the breakers or
tossed" , serve as agents of destruction, dismantling the deceased creatures with casual
brutality. This unceremonious treatment of the once-living by the ocean’s relentless
breakers underscores the harshness of natural processes, where death is an everyday
occurrence devoid of ceremony or mourning. Hughes uses the ocean to mirror the
unforgiving and indiscriminate nature of death, a force that respects no camaraderie and
erases the identities of its subjects, leaving behind only the detritus of existence. Thereby
creating an empathetic mood for the readers and reminds them of the inhumanity of
nature.

The jawbone, central to the poem, emerges as a stark emblem of the predatory nature of
existence. It is the remnant of a creature that once "gripped, gripped and is now a
cenotaph". The transformation from a tool for survival to a monument of death
encapsulates the brutal cycle where the hunter inevitably becomes the hunted. By
presenting the jawbone as both a weapon of life’s sustenance and an artifact of death,
Hughes highlights the transient nature of power and life. Every creature is thrust into a
silent struggle that ends with its own obliteration, illustrating the transient supremacy
within the natural world. Therefore, it showcases the reflective tone to the readers, and
highlights the remorselessness of death.

Lastly, Hughes extends the brutality of nature and the impermanence of life through the
symbol of “Time in the sea [that] eats its tail” . This symbol of the ouroboros, a serpent that
devours its own tail, conjures a sense of endlessness and self-consumption. Nature’s
creatures are locked in a perpetual cycle where their end is inevitable, and their purposes,
once so vital, become futile. Thereon, suggesting that existence is just a struggle for
survival that ultimately yields to the relentless march of time and the unyielding jaws of
death, leaving the readers in an introspective mood and casting merciless impressions of
nature’s unrelenting force, death.

FORM AND STRUCTURE:

Point: Ted Hughes incorporates form and structure in the poem “Relic” to demonstrate the
ruthlessness of death over life

The title of the poem, "Relic," suggests the idea of something that remains from the past,
typically as a remnant or reminder of what once was, suggesting inescapability of cyclic
nature of life and death. The poem's three stanzas move from a cinquain (or five-line
stanza) to a sestet (or six-line stanza), then back to a cinquain again. This pattern of growth
and shrinking mimics precisely what the poem describes: the endless cycle of birth and
death, eating and being eaten, that is the fate of all animal life. The poem is written in free
verse, which reflects the immense uncertainty and unpredictability of life and death. The
varying line lengths, with some lines being long and some short, suggests the ups and
downs of life and the vulnerability of all humans against it, thereby acting as a reflection for
the readers and creating ruthless impressions of death. The rhymed couplet in line 4&5
lends some extra weight to the poem's warning that there's no such thing as friendship in
wild nature. The "deeps" here are "cold" literally and metaphorically: the ocean is both icy
and unfeeling! The first line consists of 8 words and a colon, and the last line consists of 8
words and a full stop, which evidently shows the cycle of life, where, in the end, you are left
with what you began with. The colon in line 1 suggests the continuation of life, while in the
last line, the full stop indicates death and finality, thereby showing the inevitability of this
circle of life and death. Moreover, the number, 8, when rotated, creates the notation of
infinity, giving the readers a clearer emphasis on this ongoing, infinite cycle.In line 16, the
use of irony irony underlies the struggle for survival: those who eat, the jawbone warns,
will always be eaten themselves one day. Moreover, a cenotaph is a memorial for those
buried elsewhere, often honoring lost or unidentified bodies, like soldiers. The jawbone in
"Relic" becomes a metaphor for the countless unseen lives lost at sea, epitomizing the
ceaseless cycle of predation in the ocean's depths. Through personification, the sea and
time are depicted as eternal forces that dictate the cycle of life and death. The sea
consciously "achieves" a collection of remains, symbolizing its role in the grand scheme of
existence. Similarly, time is likened to an ouroboros, a symbol of endlessness, reinforcing
the idea that all individual life is subject to these immortal entities. This personification
amplifies the sea and time as powerful, ever-present architects of nature's cycle. The use of
literary devices in the poem crafts a visceral and haunting depiction of the marine food
chain, emphasizing the theme of life's relentless cycle. Repetition of plosive ‘b’ ’ in "broken
by the breakers" and the relentless recurrence of "jaws" instills a sense of nature's
unyielding force and the inevitability of death and destruction within the sea. Asyndeton in
lists such as "shells, vertebrae, claws, carapaces, skulls" suggests the countless, unending
deaths that constitute the ocean's daily reality, with the omission of conjunctions
indicating an infinite series of lives consumed by the sea. Alliteration in phrases like "deeps
are cold" and "sea's achievement" creates a rhythm that echoes the repetitive nature of life
and death, while the assonance in "Nothing touches but, clutching, devours" provides a
dark musicality, connecting the sounds with the actions they describe, enhancing the grim
imagery of predation. Synecdoche is particularly striking, as the "jawbone" represents the
entirety of marine life, reducing the diverse ecosystem to the singular function of survival
through consumption, blurring the lines between species and highlighting the universality
of the struggle to live and the certainty of death. Together, these devices create a stark
portrayal of the ocean's vastness and the small, brutal lives within it, each life another link
in the chain of existence that the sea both nourishes and nullifies.

CONCLUSION:
The reconnaissance of the poem, “Relic”, brings to the surface the utilization of the theme
of the death’s ruthlessness, symbolism, and form and structure to arouse the mood of
pathos in the readers’ minds, highlighting the overwhelming nature of death. "Relic" by
“Ted Hughes'' is a free-verse poem that explores the relentless cycle of life and death in the
natural world. The poem portrays the sea as a destructive force, and a jawbone as a symbol
of this eternal cycle, where everyone gets drawn in eventually and death marks a new
beginning, leaving an indelible mark on the readers’ mind and making them contemplate
the ferocity and inescapability of death.