Nature’s Reflection: Pike’s Predator Instinct vs. Tintern Abbey’s Devotion
In “Pike,” Hughes employs a deep metaphor for the predator instinct, building upon Darwin’s theory of evolution. Conversely, Wordsworth, in “Tintern Abbey,” demonstrates a traditional devotion to nature, emphasizing its power to guide our inner selves. Both authors, therefore, connect their natural subjects with human consciousness and humanity’s raw connection with the universe.
The words “tigering,” “gold,” “grandeur,” and “emerald” in the description of the fish and its natural habitat imbue the pike with a royal and elevated status, commanding superior respect. The fish’s killer instinct is its natural predator impulse for survival, and the speaker draws upon this feature to compare the creature’s behavior with humans who interfere with the pike’s territory. The speaker recalls how the strongest fish kept as pets killed the remaining two, illustrating that they will turn to cannibalism to survive if necessary.
By describing the pike’s mechanical workings and its built-in instruments for catching prey, the speaker highlights the creature’s natural, violent survival instinct. We are presented with a horrific death resulting from the creature’s impulse to remain the strongest of its species. However, the speaker also kept three fish as pets, removing them from their natural environment. This dark and gloomy memory haunts the speaker every time they go fishing.
Within its murky environment, the pike is portrayed as an arrogant and sinister character that frightens the speaker. The speaker questions their own place and status in the universe because of their connection with the natural world’s survival of the fittest.
While the speaker in “Pike” shows an awareness of the natural order through the pike’s violent predator instinct for survival, the speaker in “Tintern Abbey” expresses worship and devotion for nature through an enlightening return to the rural spot. The speaker describes the passing of five years, referring to the changing seasons and connecting it with their own growth and maturity as they observe the orchards’ unripe fruits. The speaker explains how their memory of the rural area, since their last visit, helped them through tough times in the city, as the countryside spot was a refuge from the reality of maturity and life’s expectations. Their illumination, provoked by their connection with nature, helps the speaker reflect upon the course of their own life and the natural order of the universe. This is a spiritual connection, but it is with nature alone, not with God, as the only vital energy.
Now matured, the speaker in “Tintern Abbey” finds in nature the tools to mature and find their place in life, reflecting on the beauty and the uplifting, healing effect of nature on humanity. On the other hand, in “Pike,” the speaker identifies with the dark creature, recognizing that humans are the biggest predators on Earth. Therefore, Hughes continues the poetic tradition of nature established by Wordsworth but adds the contemporary natural predator instinct of the survival of the fittest in his shorter metaphor about natural order.