The Hug
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Popularity of “The Hug”: The poem “The Hug” by Thom Gunn, a
renowned English poet, and writer, is a romantic poetic piece. It was
published in 1992 in his collection, The Man with Night Sweats. The
poem shows a direction in which a mature love can find its progress
and unbound happiness. It also highlights the comfort one receives
being in a loyal relationship. Although the poem revolves around
the speaker’s personal life experience, yet it gained immense
popularity on account of its universal thematic strand.
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“The Hug” As a Representative of Love: This poem centers on a
mature couple who find comfort in each other’s company. It begins
when the speaker provides intimate detail of his partner’s birthday
party in which they dined and drank heavily. Resultantly, they become
unable to walk to the room to have a nap. Owing to their drunken
state, an old friend transported them to a comfortable space where
they slept instantly due to drowsiness. However, the speaker’s deep
sleep gets disturbed by a warm hug. He provides vivid detail of the
position in which both of them were lying on the bed. As the poem
follows, the speaker states that they were not into lovemaking, but
they share an unbreakable bond. He simply finds himself locked in a
tight heal to shoulder hug with his partner. This romantic moment
reminded him of his youth when the two were not familiar with their
grand passion for lovemaking.
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Major Themes in “The Hug”: Love, friendship, and memories are
the major themes of the poem. The poem sheds light on a
memorable incident of the writer’s life. It recollects the joyous
moments he spent with his partner on her birthday night. At first, they
have a grand celebration with old friends, and later, they enjoy a
sound sleep. Sleep disturbed by a tight hug provided him candid and
joyous feelings. He feels so lucky surrounded by a lady who owns
him, even during sleep. Her polite gesture makes him think of his
carefree youth when one seems less familiar with the maturity of
love.
Analysis of Literary Devices Used in “The Hug”
literary devices create unique and deep meanings in the poem. With the
help of these devices, the writers express their ideas clearly and effectively.
The analysis of the devices used in the poem is as follows.
1. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the
same line such as the sound of /e/ and /o/ in “The whole strength of
your body set” and again the sound of /e/ in “The stay of your secure
firm dry embrace.”
2. Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the
same line such as the sound of /t/ and /w/ in “we were still twentytwo” and /d/ in “had drunk and dined.”
3. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in
the same line such as the sound of /r/ in “The stay of your secure firm
dry embrace” and the sound of /s/ in “My shoulder-blades against
your chest.”
4. Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come
to an end at a line break; rather, it rolls over to the next line. For
example:
“And locking me to you
As if we were still twenty-two
When our grand passion had not yet
Become familial.”
5. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving
their five senses. Thom Gunn has used imagery in this poem such as
“It was your birthday, we had drunk and dined”, “Till slowly lowered,
his whole face kissed the mud,” and “To a bed I reached in one drunk
stride.”
6. Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is
made between the objects that are different in nature. The poet has
used affection as an extended metaphor just to show the intimacy
between two lovers.
7. Personification: Personification is to give human qualities to
inanimate objects. The poet has personified sleep in the
last stanza of the poem such as; “Elected Silence, sing to me.”
8. Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and
qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from literal
meanings. The poem shows symbols like love, affection, and
togetherness to show how these warm feelings make us feel special.
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in “The Hug”
Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry.
Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.
1. Diction: The poem shows descriptive diction having rhetoric devices,
symbolism, and impressive images.
2. Free Verse: Free verse is a type of poetry that does not
contain patterns of rhyme or meter. This is a free-verse poem with no
strict rhyme or meter.
3. Quatrain: A quatrain is a four-lined stanza borrowed from Persian
poetry. Here, only the last stanza is a quatrain
4. Quintain: A quintain is a five-lined stanza borrowed from French
poetry. Here only the second stanza is quintain.
5. Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are four
stanzas in this poem with each having different lines.
Quotes to be Used
These lines from the poem are useful to quote for lovers while recounting
some joyous feelings of their past.
“I dozed, I slept. My sleep broke on a hug,
Suddenly, from behind,
In which the full lengths of our bodies pressed:
Your instep to my heel,
My shoulder-blades against your chest.”