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Joy Summary
In this poem, joy is personified as a young nymph who keeps the company of a butcher boy and is found bright-eyed and laughing in the arms of this boy as she drives the butcher cart.
Joy Analysis
This poem is thematically related to the "Young Sailor" in its treatment of pleasure, though here we move beyond basic pleasure to the deeper and more noble sentiment of joy. The poet goes looking for joy and finds here in the arms of a butcher boy. Though joy is a word and a feeling often deemed proper to the world of solemn religiosity, Hughes here portrays joys as something richer, earthier, and unexpectedly humble in the company she keeps. Like the Young Sailor whose pleasures are quotidian, Joy is a nymph whose laughter is elicited by someone as common as a butcher boy. Hughes here...
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This section contains 155 words (approx. 1 page at 400 words per page) |
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