“Tractor” by Ted Hughes is a poem which describes a scene or incident vividly. The poem is about a tractor, and his battle with the weather, that is refusing to start up and is annoying the driver. The tractor is stuck into the snow and the driver tries and tries but the weather does not take his side and goes against him. In the end he manages to start the tractor to show that man can overcome problems no matter how hard the task may be.
The opening stanza is focusing mainly on the tractors refusal to start and the weather that has an influence. The poet uses oxymoron to describe the extremes of cold he is experiencing.
“A spill of molten ice, smoking snow”
This quotation shows that the molten is compared to the extreme heat of the lava. Whereas the ice is like a frozen surface. The second part of the quotation which is “smoking snow” is another part of oxymoron which shows the smoking is the burning and the opposite which is the snow which he compares to as cold. This outlines how cold it is and the coldness really got to the driver.
In the second stanza the poet uses contradiction to show the contrast between the weather the driver is facing. Although the driver is trying rally hard the failure of it all gets worse and worse.
“Through the degrees, deepening into its Hell of Ice”
This shows the struggle the driver is facing with the severe weather conditions. “Deepening into its hell of ice” shows that he is forcing his way out. It also shows that he is preparing for a fight that he wasn’t ready for. The reader’s impact is probably gradually increasing as he would feel sorrow.
The use of imagery the poet uses is quite dramatic as shown in the 5th stanza. He uses this imagery to describe the evil intention of the whole impact.
“Like a demon demonstrating”
This is comparing the tractor to a bad demon
