From Tractor by Ted Hughes
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
Starter
Write a short account about a time when a vehicle let you down
(broke down, wouldn’t start, puncture etc.)
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
Learning Objectives
As we study this poem you will learn:
• The story of the poem
• How to work with a group to read a section of the poem to the class.
• More about the terms,
Free Verse: Personnification: Oxymoron: Onomatopoeia:
Enjambement: Alliteration: Imagery: Pace/Tempo
• You will also complete some mini tasks and a quiz on the poem.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
Common Core Standards Objectives - 1
In these lessons we will continue learning how to:
• Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says.
(Quote!) [CC.11-12.R.L.1]
• Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze it in detail.
[CC.9-10.R.L.2]
• Provide an objective summary of the text. [CC.9-10.R.L.2]
• Analyze how complex characters interact with others and advance the
plot or develop the theme over the course of a text. [CC.9-10.R.L.3]
• Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the
text. [CC.9-10.R.L.4 ]
• Analyze how structure contributes to the overall meaning and
aesthetic impact of the work. [CC.11-12.R.L.5]
• Analyze a text to determine symbolism, irony, metaphor and subtext.
[CC.11-12.R.L.6]
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
Common Core Standards Objectives - 2
In these lessons we will continue learning how to:
• Read closely to determine what the text says and make logical
inferences from it citing specific textual evidence to support
conclusions drawn from the text. [CC.K-12.R.R.1]
• Determine central ideas or themes of a text analyzing and
summarising their development. [CC.K-12.R.R.2]
• Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and
interact over the course of a text. [CC.K-12.R.R.3]
• Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text and analyze
how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. [CC.K-12.R.R.4]
• Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences,
paragraphs, and larger portions of the text relate to each other and
to the whole. [CC.K-12.R.R.5]
• Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style
of a text. [CC.K-12.R.R.6]
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
The tractor stands frozen - an agony
To think of. All night
Snow packed its open entrails.
Now a head-pincering gale
A spill of molten ice, smoking snow,
Pours into its steel.
At white heat of numbness it stands
In the aimed hosing of ground-level fieriness.
It defies flesh and won't start.
Hands are like wounds already
Inside armour gloves, and feet are unbelievable
As if the toe-nails were all just torn off.
I stare at it in hatred. Beyond it
The copse hisses - capitulates miserably
In the fleeing, failing light. Starlings,
A dirtier sleetier snow, blow smokily, unendingly, over
Towards plantations Eastward.
All the time the tractor is sinking
Through the degrees, deepening
Into its hell of ice.
The starting lever
Cracks its action, like a snapping knuckle.
The battery is alive - but like a lamb
Trying to nudge its solid-frozen mother
While the seat claims my buttock-bones, bites
With the space-cold of earth, which it has joined
In one solid lump.
I squirt commercial sure-fire
Down the black throat - it just coughs.
It ridicules me - a trap of iron stupidity
I've stepped into. I drive the battery
As if I were hammering and hammering
The frozen arrangement to pieces with a hammer
And it jabbers laughing pain-crying mockingly
Into happy life.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
Mini Task 1: In the group you have been allocated, practice reading out
your section of the poem so you can read it to the class.
1 The tractor stands frozen - an agony
2 To think of. All night
Snow packed its open entrails.
3 Now a head-pincering gale
4 A spill of molten ice, smoking snow,
Pours into its steel.
5 At white heat of numbness it stands
6 In the aimed hosing of ground-level fieriness.
It defies flesh and won't start.
Hands are like wounds already
Inside armour gloves, and feet are unbelievable
As if the toe-nails were all just torn off.
I stare at it in hatred. Beyond it
The copse hisses - capitulates miserably
In the fleeing, failing light. Starlings,
A dirtier sleetier snow, blow smokily, unendingly, over
Towards plantations Eastward.
All the time the tractor is sinking
Through the degrees, deepening
Into its hell of ice.
The starting lever
Cracks its action, like a snapping knuckle.
The battery is alive - but like a lamb
Trying to nudge its solid-frozen mother
While the seat claims my buttock-bones, bites
With the space-cold of earth, which it has joined
In one solid lump.
I squirt commercial sure-fire
Down the black throat - it just coughs.
It ridicules me - a trap of iron stupidity
I've stepped into. I drive the battery
As if I were hammering and hammering
The frozen arrangement to pieces with a hammer
And it jabbers laughing pain-crying mockingly
Into happy life.
Why has the text been split
up this way?
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
Why has the text been split up this way?
The poem has been broken up to allow continuity where enjambment
occurs.
The Story Of The Poem
Mini Task 2
Write down what you think has happened in the poem.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
The Story Of The Poem
A tractor has been left standing out in a field overnight. It has become
stuck in the freezing mud and snow. It is so cold that the farmer is
finding it impossible to get the engine started. The farmer feels as if
the tractor has taken on a life of its own and has decided to refuse to
start just to annoy him. Eventually he does manage to get it started.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
The Story Of The Poem Stanza by Stanza
Mini Task 3
Write down what happens in each Stanza.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
The Story Of The Poem Stanza by Stanza
Mini Task 3
Write down what happens in each Stanza.
Stanza by Stanza
Stanza 1: This stanza describes what the farmer felt when he discovers
the tractor frozen in the snow and mud of an open field.
Stanza 2:This stanza describes how he fails to start the tractor as well
as a description of his surroundings.
Stanza 3:This stanza continues describes how he fails to start the
tractor but also describes how uncomfortable he is sitting on the
tractor in he cold.
Stanza 4:This stanza describes how he finally manages to get the
tractor started by pouring ‘sure fire’ into the engine.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
Genre & The Structure Of The Poem
Mini Task 4
What is the Genre of this poem and how is it structured?
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
Genre & The Structure Of The Poem
Mini Task 4
What is the Genre of this poem and how is it structured?
The poem is written in FREE VERSE.
It is composed of four unequal stanzas of 8,12, 7 & 8 lines. The line
length is also uneven. There are a few lines that rhyme, but they appear
randomly and cannot be considered frequent or regular enough to
describe the poem as having a rhyme scheme:
Ex: Snow packed its open entrails.
Toolbox Term:
Now a head-pincering gale
And
Free Verse: A poem that has no formal or
regular rhyme scheme.
It ridicules me - a trap of iron stupidity
I've stepped into. I drive the battery
As if I were hammering and hammering
The frozen arrangement to pieces with a hammer
And it jabbers laughing pain-crying mockingly
Because of this, the poem reads more like prose than a poem.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
The Structure Of The Poem - Key Feature
Mini Task 5
What is the Key Feature of the poem?
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
The Structure Of The Poem - Key Feature
Mini Task 5
What is the Key Feature of the poem?
The key feature of this poem is PERSONIFICATION. Personification is
where an animal, machine or inanimate object is described in
human terms .
Toolbox Term - Personification:
Where an inanimate object, machine or animal is describe in human
terms .
Mini Task 6
There are many example of Personification in this poem. On your
copy of the poem underline or highlight ONE example from each
stanza.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
The Structure Of The Poem - Key Feature: Personification
Mini Task 6
Stanza 1:
∙ The tractor stands frozen.
• Snow packed its open entrails.
Stanza 2:
•It defies flesh and won't start.
•Into its hell of ice.
Stanza 3:
•…like a snapping knuckle.
•The battery is alive
•While the seat claims my buttock-bones, bites
Stanza 4:
•Down the black throat - it just coughs.
•It ridicules me ….
•And it jabbers laughing pain-crying mockingly
•Into happy life.
The effect of all this is to make the tractor seem ‘human’ and to
have its own will; a will that is defying and injuring the farmer.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
The Structure Of The Poem - Oxymoron
Another interesting feature of this poem is the use of Oxymorons to
suggest how cold it really is. An Oxymoron is where two words used
together have, or seem to have, opposite meanings.
Mini Task 7
Find one example of an oxymoron in the poem.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
The Structure Of The Poem - Oxymoron
Another interesting feature of this poem is the use of Oxymorons to
suggest how cold it really is. An Oxymoron is where two words used
together have, or seem to have, opposite meanings.
Mini Task 7
Find one example of an oxymoron in the poem.
In this poem Ted Hughes uses heat as an unusual way to describe the
cold.
Ex:
A spill of molten ice, smoking snow,
Pours into its steel.
At white heat of numbness it stands
and
…Into its hell of ice
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
The Structure Of The Poem - Enjambment
As we discovered in the oral task, another major feature of the poem is
ENJAMBMENT which occurs frequently.
MINI TASK 8
On your copy of the poem put an arrow  to mark where you think
the Enjambment is in this stanza.
I squirt commercial sure-fire
Down the black throat - it just coughs.
It ridicules me - a trap of iron stupidity
I've stepped into. I drive the battery
As if I were hammering and hammering
The frozen arrangement to pieces with a hammer
And it jabbers laughing pain-crying mockingly
Into happy life.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
The Structure Of The Poem - Enjambment
MINI TASK 8
On your copy of the poem put an arrow  to mark where you think
the Enjambment is in the final stanza.
I squirt commercial sure-fire 
Down the black throat - it just coughs.
It ridicules me - a trap of iron stupidity 
I've stepped into. I drive the battery 
As if I were hammering and hammering 
The frozen arrangement to pieces with a hammer
And it jabbers laughing pain-crying mockingly 
Into happy life.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
The Structure Of The Poem - Onomatopoeia
There is in this poem one example of Onomatopoeia.
Onomatopoeia is the use of words which sound similar to the noises
that the words refer to Ex. ‘Pop’ or ‘Boom.’
Mini Task 9
Find the one one example of Onomatopoeia in this poem .
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
The Structure Of The Poem - Onomatopoeia
There is in this poem one example of Onomatopoeia.
Onomatopoeia is the use of words which sound similar to the noises
that the words refer to Ex. ‘Pop’ or ‘Boom.’
Mini Task 9
Find the one one example of Onomatopoeia in this poem .
In TRACTOR L13 ‘hisses.’
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
The Structure Of The Poem - Alliteration
There are also examples of Alliteration in the first three stanzas. This is
the first example in the poem.
The tractor stands frozen - an agony
To think of. All night
MINI TASK 10
On your copy of the poem underline or highlight where you think the
other examples of Alliteration are.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes
The Structure Of The Poem - Alliteration
There are also examples of Alliteration in the first three stanzas. This is
the first example in the poem.
The tractor stands frozen - an agony
To think of. All night
MINI TASK 10
On your copy of the poem underline or highlight where you think the
other examples of Alliteration are.
These are the other examples of Alliteration in the poem:
•A spill of molten ice, smoking snow
•In the fleeing, failing light.
•A dirtier sleetier snow, blow smokily,
•All the time the tractor is sinking
•.Through the degrees, deepening
•… but like a lamb
•While the seat claims my buttock-bones, bites
From Tractor by Ted Hughes - Imagery
The poem also relies heavily on Imagery to create its effects and
the use of personification helps to enhance the imagery in the
poem. Ex. The pipes of the engine are described as ‘entrails’ the
‘plumbing’ of the human body.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes - Imagery
MINI TASK 11
Look at Stanza 1. Apart from ‘entrails’ what other images are
created by poet?
The tractor stands frozen - an agony
To think of. All night
Snow packed its open entrails.
Now a head-pincering gale
A spill of molten ice, smoking snow,
Pours into its steel.
At white heat of numbness it stands
In the aimed hosing of ground-level fieriness.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes - Imagery
MINI TASK 11
Look at Stanza 1. Apart from ‘entrails’ what other images are created by
poet?
The tractor stands frozen - an agony  The tractor frozen in the snow.
To think of. All night
Snow packed its open entrails.  The engine packed full of snow
Now a head-pincering gale  A strong, ice cold wind
A spill of molten ice, smoking snow,
Pours into its steel.  Snow and ice being blown into the engine
At white heat of numbness it stands
In the aimed hosing of ground-level fieriness.  A freezing wind whipping the
snow along the ground towards the farmer.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes - Imagery
MINI TASK 12
• Now look at the rest of the poem and select one powerful, unusual
or striking image from each stanza.
• Explain why you selected these images.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes - Imagery
MINI TASK 12
• Now look at the rest of the poem and select one powerful, unusual
or striking image from each stanza.
• Explain why you selected these images.
For me these are:
Stanza 2: All the time the tractor is sinking
Through the degrees
Because the tractor is not ‘sinking’, but the snow is building up
around it.
Stanza 3: The battery is alive - but like a lamb
Trying to nudge its solid-frozen mother
I find the image of the new-born lamb trying to wake up its
frozen, dead mother very graphic and very powerful.
Stanza 4: I drive the battery
As if I were hammering and hammering
I like the way the poet conveys the farmer’s frustration in
these lines.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes - Tone
Mini Task 13
How would you describe the tone/change of tone in the poem?
The tone of the poem is generally serious, even angry in places.
But the tone changes to joy at the end of the poem when the
farmer manages to get the tractor going.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes - Tone
Mini Task 13
How would you describe the tone/change of tone in the poem?
From Tractor by Ted Hughes - Tone
Mini Task 13
How would you describe the tone/change of tone in the poem?
The tone of the poem is serious in Stanza 1-3 but turns to anger in
Stanza 4 when the farmer is ‘hammering’ the engine to get it
started. But then the tone changes to joy at the end of the poem
when the farmer manages to get the tractor going.
From Tractor by Ted Hughes - Tone
Mini Task 14
How would you describe the pace and tempo in the poem?
From Tractor by Ted Hughes – Pace & Tempo
Mini Task 14
How would you describe the pace and tempo in the poem?
The Pace and Tempo of the poem is very even throughout.
Although in the final stanza when he is ‘hammering’ the engine to
get it started the pace does pick up a little to help express the
farmer's frustration and anger.
Mini Task 15
Why is the pace and tempo so even?
From Tractor by Ted Hughes – Pace & Tempo
Mini Task 15
Why is the pace and tempo so even?
The poem is written in Free Verse and reads like prose with a very
even tempo and pace because it lacks the features needed to give
pace and rhythm such as a regular rhyme scheme, a lot of
alliteration or repetition and short or even line length.