Lesson on 'Pike' by Ted Hughes

Sue Dymoke




To develop an understanding of how a poet uses language to capture creatures on the page. To use this understanding to draft a poem on a 'sinister' animal.

Resources needed

Poetry Archive recording of Ted Hughes reading 'Pike'. Data projector, interactive whiteboard or OHP. Pictures of pike, either from non-fiction books, charts or internet images and/or a stuffed pike (some local museums will loan out materials from their collections). Mini-whiteboards (or paper) and pens. Images of other potentially sinister but fascinating animals, such as snakes, snails, bats, leeches, locusts, vultures, carrion crows, alligators, sharks, sting rays.

Teaching sequence of activities


Find out if anyone in the group has been fishing or has parents who fish. Why do they do it? What's the attraction? Listen to Ted Hughes's short introduction to 'Pike' at least once. What does he say about the fish and his experiences of fishing? Ask students to summarise the key points in three phrases.





Extension Activities

How do other poems and poets capture animals? Compare 'Pike' with other poems by Hughes (some ideas are listed in Further Reading and Listening) and/or with other poems on this website such as 'Hyena' by Edwin Morgan; 'Bats' Ultrasound' by Les Murray; 'Considering the Snail' by Thom Gunn; and 'Pipistrelles' by Kathleen Jamie. Students could compile their own sinister animals poetry anthology and write an introduction. Use the poem as starting point for a discussion or writing about the rights and wrongs of fishing. Differentiation Provide a glossary or word matching/fishing game activity for definitions of potentially difficult words and phrases, including 'malevolent', 'grandeur', 'silhouette', 'submarine delicacy', 'a life subdued to its instrument', 'pectorals', 'muscular tench'. A card sort activity on arguments for and against fishing. There are a number of fishing sites on the internet which include pictures and text about catching prize pike. These could also be used as an initial stimulus. For instance, look at this picture of a massive pike caught in Scotland by a woman angler! www.anglersnet.co.uk

Further Reading

Poetry in the Making by Ted Hughes (published by Faber and Faber). Other poems from Lupercal by Ted Hughes (published by Faber and Faber), especially 'Thrushes', 'Hawk Roosting', 'Snowdrop' and 'The Bull Moses'. Like 'Pike', these poems reveal the power and surprising violence of the natural world. The Tree House, a poetry collection by Kathleen Jamie (published by Picador).

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