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    Wodwo Themes

    Uploaded by

    Mohsin Iftikhar
    This poem explores themes of individuality, identity, and perseverance through the perspective of a creature called a Wodwo. The Wodwo is searching to understand what it is and find its place in the world. It feels free to go anywhere but is also bewildered by its existence. A key theme is the search for identity as the Wodwo endlessly asks questions about itself without finding definitive answers. However, it perseveres in its search and will continue looking for understanding, conveying an overall hopeful message.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Wodwo Themes

    Uploaded by

    Mohsin Iftikhar
    995 views3 pages
    This poem explores themes of individuality, identity, and perseverance through the perspective of a creature called a Wodwo. The Wodwo is searching to understand what it is and find its place in the world. It feels free to go anywhere but is also bewildered by its existence. A key theme is the search for identity as the Wodwo endlessly asks questions about itself without finding definitive answers. However, it perseveres in its search and will continue looking for understanding, conveying an overall hopeful message.

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    Wodwo Themes - eNotes.com

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    This poem explores themes of individuality, identity, and perseverance through the perspective of a creature called a Wodwo. The Wodwo is searching to understand what it is and find its place in the world. It feels free to go anywhere but is also bewildered by its existence. A key theme is the search for identity as the Wodwo endlessly asks questions about itself without finding definitive answers. However, it perseveres in its search and will continue looking for understanding, conveying an overall hopeful message.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    995 views3 pages

    Wodwo Themes

    Uploaded by

    Mohsin Iftikhar
    This poem explores themes of individuality, identity, and perseverance through the perspective of a creature called a Wodwo. The Wodwo is searching to understand what it is and find its place in the world. It feels free to go anywhere but is also bewildered by its existence. A key theme is the search for identity as the Wodwo endlessly asks questions about itself without finding definitive answers. However, it perseveres in its search and will continue looking for understanding, conveying an overall hopeful message.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
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    Wodwo

    by Ted Hughes

    Themes
    Last Reviewed on June 19, 2019, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 378

    This poem is a stream of consciousness poem, so it appears to be all over the place. That can throw
    off some readers and cause knee jerk reactions that believe the poem doesn't have anything useful to
    say or have anything of thematic importance. That would be a huge oversight to think like that with
    this poem.

    At the core of this poem is a search. The speaker of the poem lets readers know from the very first
    line that he is searching for what he is. As the poem continues, it should become clear to readers that
    the speaker is also searching for his place in the world. Man's place in the world is a powerful and long
    lasting theme. It has been thematically discussed across centuries of literature, and different literary
    movements are continually moving man's importance around. This poem is a bit unique because at
    times, it puts the speaker on par with various parts of nature; however, in other places the poet
    announces that he is "the exact centre."

    Another theme present in the poem is a theme of individuality. This can be seen in the number of
    times that the poet uses the word "I." It appears nearly two dozen times throughout the poem, and it
    shows readers that the poem's speaker is very much reflecting internally on himself. The poem also
    conveys a message that the speaker thinks very highly of himself at times. He is free to do whatever
    he wants whenever he wants.

    I’ve no threads

    fastening me to anything I can go anywhere

    I seem to have been given the freedom

    of this place
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    Finally, I think a third central theme is a theme of perseverance. The poem is all about the speaker
    searching for his place in the world and trying to discover what he is. For every possible answer that
    he receives, it is almost always met with another question, yet that is important. Getting an answer
    only to be met with another question can be incredibly frustrating, but he doesn't give up. He keeps
    searching, and the poem ends without the speaker having a definitive answer. That doesn't bother him,
    because he says that he'll keep searching. It's a very hopeful ending.

    . . . but I’ll go on looking

    Themes and Meanings


    Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 564

    In “Learning to Think,” Ted Hughes wrote of the Wodwo, “I imagine this creature just discovering that it
    is alive in the world. It does not know what it is and is full of questions. It is quite bewildered to know
    what is going on. It has a whole string of thoughts, but at the centre of all of themis this creature and
    its bewilderment.”

    The Wodwo is reminiscent of the creatures of Anglo-Saxon mythology, such as the marsh-living
    monster Grendel in Beowulf (first transcribed c. 1000 c.e.). Hughes’s device of having the reader
    perceive the world through the Wodwo’s awareness exemplifies his belief that poets have a
    shamanistic nature. Their small, individualized self is unimportant; they can enter the awareness of
    another creature at will. The poem gives a glimpse into the very primitive consciousness of the
    Wodwo. The lines “I’ve no threads/ fastening me to anything I can go anywhere/ I seem to have been
    given the freedom/ of this place what am I then?” hint that the Wodwo is on the brink of beginning the
    journey to a human type of self-awareness. Since it is not tied to the earth as are the plants, it has
    freedom to pursue answers to its endless questions.

    The Wodwo exists at a primeval level of evolution. Its powers of reflection are minimal; it can only
    focus on its immediate...

    (The entire section contains 942 words.)

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