hello everyone and welcome back to english with kaylee in today's video we're going to analyze another one of ted hughes's poems which is entitled football at slack and if you're sitting the caie syllabus next year this is part of the the ted hughes collection so first of all i'll read through the poem and then we'll discuss the summary and the main themes and then we'll we'll break down our analysis so let's get started football at slack between plunging valleys on a bare back of hill men in bunting colors bounced and their blown ball bounced the blown ball jumped and the merry-colored men sprouted like water to head it the ball blew away downwind the rubbery men bounced after it the ball jumped up and out and hung in the wind over a gulf of tree tops then they all shouted together and the blown wind the blown ball blew back winds from fiery halls in heaven piled the hills darkening around them to all them the glare light mixed its mad oils and through glooms then the rain lowered a steel price hair plastered they all just trod water to puddle glitter and their shouts bobbed up coming fine and thin washed and happy while the humped world sank foundering and the valleys blood unthinkable under the depths of atlantic depression but the wingers leapt they bicycled in air and the goalie flew horizontal and once again a golden holocaust lifted the cloud's edge to watch them okay so let's do a brief overall summary of what happens in the poem so first of all we see a group of men playing football in the english valleys something to note is slack is a village near where ted hughes actually grew up in yorkshire so the wind blows the ball to and from them and they are seen chasing the ball across the field then we see the storm clouds appear and the wind intensifies the men are impressed by the immensity of the storm and they seem to be cleansed by the rain and feeling very happy and we see them continue to play finally we see the sun emerging and it almost looks on at the players enjoying the game of football so what are the themes in football at slack well there are two main ones we'll be exploring the first of which is the power of human nature and the second is the power of nature and just how majestic it is so let's get into our deep layered analysis so stanza number one so we have context given in the title as i said slack is a village in england so we get to see a more personal poem from hughes potentially um a more autobiographical piece than some of his other works so straight away it opens within the action okay and we see this subtle personification of the hill with the bare back of the hill and it shows really how both nature and the players are alive we have men in bunting colors an excellent word and i put a visual there just to show you what is bunting um and if we think about the connotations of this word of course we consider colorful but we also got to think okay when do we use bunting well it is for celebrations and times of excitement so we have bounced and their blown ball bounced so this is a diaco where we have the repetition of two words with several words in between and this goes to highlight the relationship between the players and the ball okay because we have the men who were bouncing and also the blown ball and it suggests that both the players and the ball are almost bouncing around the field so we get a very lively and uplifting tone in stanza one we of course see enjoyment and this really goes to emphasize the pace of the game and what we are witnessing and it almost acts as an aid for the visual story that's playing out in our minds so we do see throughout the first few stanzas there's a lot of alliteration of this plosive b sound and this goes to add musicality to the poem but i think that the beautiful thing is is that it creates this almost bouncing rhythm um as we see the ball travel across the field and throughout the poem so stanza two we go back to the blown ball and this is actually called anadiplosis and this is the repetition of a word or phrase on the previous line at the end of the previous line and then towards the beginning of the subsequent line and of course this repetition mimics the ball almost bouncing across the poem um and the field and again we do see personification again as the ball cannot actually jump but it's being almost units being kicked around by the players and the merry-colored men so once again we have the connotations that are repeated from the previous stanza uplifting merry colored it's colorful it's exciting um and we've got this alliteration of the m sound then we have a simile sprouted like water and this goes to show the men's strength and excitement as we see them jumping through the air to head at the ball it's quite interesting here because throughout the poem we've seen already that nature is personified and here we almost see the reverse of that where the men are given qualities of inanimate objects um so so we see how the line is almost blurred between the two you know how everything seems to be alive um and equal the ball blew away downwind and then we have this dash here and this just goes to show us you know as we we witness the wind carrying the ball away and it carries us into the next stanza i haven't noted the alliteration of the b sound again here but it is something to note we see it in stanza one stanza two and um subsequently in stanza three so here we have this adjective to describe the men the rubbery men bounced after it and when i was thinking about the connotations of the word it suggests that the men are very flexible and and very skillful in being able to to run after the ball um and are able to to find it and retrieve it just as i said we have this alliteration again showing that bouncing rhythm and it carries on through the first stanzas the first three stanzas the alliteration of it hung in the wind over a gulf of tree tops this gives a beautiful visual image of the ball almost being held above the trees it's almost as if nature is playing with them with the football players so as i just said it seems the wind is playing a game of its own with the players keeping the ball just out of reach so it does show that hint of power from nature um but as we see now we start to see longer stanzas um and the stanza length is very important in this poem because it varies uh quite significantly but what you'll see is the longer stanzas go to show the more forceful wind so the stronger the wind the longer the stanza so then we move into our longest stanza which is stanza 4 winds from fiery halls in heaven and it ends with this the rain lowering a steel press so the longer stanza goes to show us the full extent of the storm so here we see the immense power that is released across the sky if you are writing for gcse you may want to consider how can we allude to religion here considering the almost juxtaposition of heaven and fiery holes when considering hell and and maybe the player's position on it and how they feel about the storm do they see it as something threatening or do they see it as something that heaven has gifted them we now move from the plosive b to a much more husky h sound and this change signifies how the wind has transformed from an almost playful friend to a dangerous opponent and that is emphasized by the word piled we get this image of this unrelentlessness and the pressure and force that the wind and the storm is applying to nature and to the the players around them but in the next line what is very important is that it says it is to all them so the purpose of the wind was not to scare but actually to to inspire and to create a sense of awe for the players and for the people of the world it really is to be a thing of beauty and to be appreciated and i think that goes back to the theme of just how majestic and beautiful um that nature really is then we see mixed it's mad oils and through glooms you you get images of of a painter you know almost a crazed painter smearing paint across the canvas but it we know that ultimately it's going to be an absolute beautiful work of art and then we have a quite a strong end stop line then the rain lowered a steel press so we see the metaphor here and just the sheer force that the storm has and that it's shaping the landscape below it then the tone very much changes and so does the stanza structure we go back to a three sentence stanza um and we focus back now on the players themselves and their response to the storm and it says they all just trod water so we get this idea that they remain they don't try to escape or run away from it and this may be a wider message from hughes to talk about when faced with the storm that the players don't give up and then how can we apply this to our own lives and possibly when we face problems or dangers or challenges how can we best face them to have a good outcome to puddle glitter this very much links to childhood when you think about jumping in puddles and creating things with glitter and splashing about so we actually see that even though the storm was intense it seems to have brought a lot of joy to the players um and they almost feel as if they've regressed to a to their younger selves where they could go out running and jumping in the puddles and their shouts bobbed up so here we get this image and idea of of the players keeping their heads above water um so they are not struggling they are embracing the situation they are fun and they are enjoying every minute of it coming fine and thin so here actually if we consider the connotations of the word fine and thin they may have very negative connotations it almost sounds quite insignificant or i'm fine and then if we think about thin it could connote fragile however we then have a sazira and then we have subsequent adjectives that show that the players are washed and happy so then here it kind of shows that the rain has cleaned the players and it's been quite a refreshing experience so if we think about that on a slightly deeper level it could potentially be that feeling insignificant has actually made the players feel quite happy and childlike once again i think as we get older we all have certain pressures and difficulties that we have to face but when we can regress to those child childlike moments or memories we see just how grand and beautiful the world is and those problems seem to melt away so stanza five we continue with the three sentence stanza and now the focus turns to the landscape and the tone changes quite significantly so here we see a description of the hills um as if it's recoiling or sinking it's humped over um and the valley is blued and unthinkable and obviously blue could connote this idea of being covered in water from the storm but it can also mean sad and i think when we consider the next line when it says under the depth of atlantic depression we do have to consider a more negative connotation of of the word so it could mean literally underwater but and but it continues with the notion of feeling sad so this could allude to psychological depression and the feelings and worries and stresses people have so the extensive use of alliteration assonance and consonants used throughout the stanza changes the mood and tone of the poem making it much more melancholy can you find all the instances where it's used if you can find someone comment them below i will i will reply and let you know if you found them all and then we move from stanza six to stanza seven and again we go even shorter okay a shorter stanza structure just two lines um and this is where we go back to the excitement of the players the tone shifts and despite the miserable surroundings the players continue to enjoy their game but the wingers left their bicycled in in air and the goalie flew horizontal the semantic field here gives us a sense of weightlessness of the players and that of course shows a stark contrast between the external world and the pressure and the steel press and the depression and how it contrasts with their behavior and feelings very very uplifting and of course we have on genre here and it reflects that movement of the players them jumping around and you know and the goalie flinging himself across across the goalpost to try to save the ball so it just goes to emphasize how lively they are and then the last stanza once again we end with two lines and once again a golden holocaust so here we see a description of the sun but we see a duality in the description because of course golden creates a sense of beauty and wonder however the holocaust of course symbolizes um death so we aren't led to feel that there is going to be an a resolute or entirely happy ending it's almost a reminder that nature is unpredictable and it can change at any time but it lifted the clouds edge so again another piece of personification this time of the sun as it peels back the clouds to observe the men and it's almost as if that all is reciprocated um from nature and it looks at humans adversity to challenges and how we embrace challenges and and don't give up so again that's the deeper meaning of the of the poem and perhaps what hughes was trying to to describe and outline to us all so of course as i said it isn't entirely positive so we do have to consider what could hughes's message be but as we know from his collection he often explores themes of the of nature and how unpredictable it is and how it is something to be feared but also something to be um to appreciate and understand just how wonderful and beautiful it is so if we consider the form meter and rhyme so the form it has eight stanzas made up of 25 lines um and as i said before the structure mimics the intensity of the storm and that very very long stanza the five sentence stanza shows us the crescendo and the moments thereafter the poem doesn't use meter as we've said before meter usually allows a poet to express predictability but in this poem we don't see that and it's the lack of meter that possibly reflects the unpredictability of nature but also of the game of football as well we never know who's going to win or how it's going to go and for rhyme as we said there isn't a rhyme scheme but you should comment on the use of alliteration and other techniques throughout the poem we need to embrace the unpredictable nature of the world and find beauty even in challenging times so i'm finally going to share an essay question with you this is an adaptation of an essay question from the caie website one that seems to be coming up more often is to discuss how does hughes use words and images to powerful effect in this poem so if you have some ideas on how you would potentially answer this and you'd like to share them in the comments below and i'll be sure to read them and get back to you uh thanks very much for watching guys i hope that you find this video helpful don't forget to like and subscribe as i work through the other 15 ted hughes poems for caie over the coming months and thanks for watching i'll catch you in the next one bye guys [Music]