The Duality of Nature in to Paint a Water Lily by Ted Hughes

“To Paint a Water Lily” by Ted Hughes is a poem that venerates nature. The speaker follows the dragonfly through his course to the pond where most of the poem is set. As the dragonfly leads the reader through nature, the speaker conveys his vision of the duality of nature.

The speaker encourages the reader to “study/… the two minds of this lady”(l. 3-4). The speaker believes that there are two minds, or sides of nature. The lily is to be painted in these two worlds, “Now paint the long-necked lily-flower/… deep in both worlds.”(l. 22-23). The speaker believes nature to exist as two worlds.

The poet uses couplets as the line scheme in order to reinforce the idea of two sides of nature coexisting. The words the poet uses do not always rhyme perfectly, but some have consonance, “study/…lady”(l. 3-4) and “praise/…flies”(l. 11-12) are examples of this consonance. The poet’s choice to not always rhyme his words perfectly alludes to the idea that the two sides of nature do not always interact harmoniously. The poet reinforces the duality of nature by using couplets.

Hyphenation is used by the poet in order to combine two words into one. “Paint the long-necked lily-flower”(l. 22) shows two uses of hyphenation in one line. Compound words used along with hyphenations is used to convey the image of the two polar worlds of nature, “death-cries everywhere hereabouts” (l.10). The use of the hyphen and compound words in “To Paint a Water Lily” demonstrates the poet’s sense of the duality of nature.