The Full Text of “Telegraph Wires”
The Full Text of “Telegraph Wires”
-
“Telegraph Wires” Introduction
-
"Telegraph Wires" was published in Ted Hughes's 1989 collection Wolfwatching. The poem examines the complex relationship between humankind and technology. On the one hand, the speaker seems to consider telegraph wires a technological marvel, capable of connecting towns across vast, unwelcoming areas of land. At the same time, the poem implies that human technology is fleeting, fragile, and even insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe.
-
-
“Telegraph Wires” Summary
-
Set up telegraph wires over a big tract of uncultivated land, and you've made something that seems alive when you listen to it.
These wires let people in different towns talk to each other, their messages traveling across the grasses between them. Of course, these wires are still exposed to the elements.
It's so strange and fragile, this device that gets picked up and played like an instrument.
The ear hears the wires' unnatural songs and then shrinks away.
In the spinning dancefloor of space, floating above this swath of wild land, there's a shining face that pulls devastating sounds (i.e., messages) from the telegraph wires that utterly hollow people out.
-
-
“Telegraph Wires” Themes
-
Humanity's Relationship with Technology
"Telegraph Wires" explores the relationship between human beings and modern technology. On the one hand, the poem seems to admire how technology allows for ever more far-reaching and efficient methods of communicating. Yet the speaker also seems to find these strange, delicate, and decidedly nonhuman creations unsettling, in part because they can so casually transmit the kind of devastating messages that “empty human bones”—that is, that remind people of their own mortality and fragility. The poem implies that modern technology is not as miraculous as it appears and that human beings don’t always understand all the implications of the things they create.
At first, the telegraph wires in the poem seem like a testament to human ingenuity and dominance over the world. For one thing, they can link places and people together across previously uncrossable distances. The speaker specifically asks the reader to imagine the effect that telegraph wires have on a "lonely moor," a vast expanse of uncultivated land. The wires help humanity cross pieces of the land that it hasn’t yet tamed and make quiet scenes “come alive in your ear.” Wires in place, "towns whisper" to each other in conversation, a seemingly miraculous achievement.
This technology is more delicate than people think, however. While the wires can overcome the restrictions of distance, they can't "hide from the bad weather"; one strong storm could take them out, suggesting that for all its technological prowess, humanity is still beholden to the whims of nature.
Further reminding people of their own smallness and fragility, the speaker envisions "a bright face" looking down on humanity from "the revolving ballroom of space" and using these same wires to “Draw[] out the tones / That empty human bones.” This face might represent God, the moon, or the universe itself personified, while those “tones” likely refer to life-shattering messages (informing someone of the death of a loved one, perhaps).
Basically, the speaker suggests that receiving devastating messages via telegraph wire, a remarkable piece of human technology, is the universe’s way of putting humanity back in its place. Technology can't change the basic terms of life, including the stark, inescapable reality that everyone will die. The reference to space makes human achievements seem especially fleeting and insignificant, asking the reader to consider the true meaning of humankind's relationship with the tools it creates.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-12
-
-
Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Telegraph Wires”
-
Lines 1-2
Take telegraph wires, ...
... in your ear.The poem starts by asking the reader to "Take" telegraph wires and combine them with a moor (an uncultivated and usually rather unforgiving area of land typical of the English countryside).
These wires might transmit actual telegraph signals, but it's just as likely that the speaker is talking about telephone conversations; when telephones came along they sometimes repurposed the older technology. In any case, these wires are sending signals over a big, empty, wild plot of land.
Without the wires overhead directing conversations this way and that, the moor is a quiet, "lonely" place. The arrival of this new technology, however, extends communication (and, implicitly, community) across this desolate moor, making it metaphorically "come[] alive in your ear" (in the sense that you can now pick up the phone to listen to the message transmitted across these wires).
The caesura after "together" creates a dramatic pause before the following sentence: "The thing comes alive in your ear"—the new creature, the telephone system, suddenly lives! These opening lines sound like a science experiment, one that speaks to both the wonders and weirdness of technology: "take this, mix it with that, and bam: it comes alive." Readers might even think of the famous "He's alive! Alive!" line from the 1931 film Frankenstein.
On that note, this notion of being alive subtly implies that human beings can't fully control the things they create: technologies take on a life and logic of their own.
-
Lines 3-4
Towns whisper to ...
... the bad weather. -
Lines 5-8
So oddly, so ...
... hears, and withers! -
Lines 9-12
In the revolving ...
... empty human bones.
-
-
“Telegraph Wires” Symbols
-
The Telegraph Wires
In addition to being a literal presence in the poem, the telegraph wires here also symbolize the strangeness and ultimate frailty of human technology.
At first, these wires seem pretty powerful: they join towns across the "lonely moor," allowing for human communication across a vast expanse of untamed land. In this way, they represent a new era of interconnectivity. They stand like tall statues honoring technology's power to reduce distances and bring people together.
At the same time, the poem suggests that this connection is somewhat superficial. The messages these wires pass are "unearthly" and make ears "wither[]," or shrivel up and recoil. This technology, then, hasn't necessarily led to positive progress for humanity. The fact that the wires are "daintily made" and can be taken out by "bad weather" also implies that this new technological era is built on shifting sands and nowhere near as powerful and permanent as it appears to be.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 1-4: “Take telegraph wires, a lonely moor, / And fit them together. The thing comes alive in your ear. / Towns whisper to towns over the heather. / But the wires cannot hide from the bad weather. ”
-
-
“Telegraph Wires” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
-
Alliteration
Alliteration adds subtle emphasis and lyricism to the poem. Note the crisp /t/ sounds of line 3, for example:
Towns whisper to towns over the heather.
Those flitting consonants not only make the line more sonically interesting, but they also subtly evoke the connection being described: the /t/ sound makes its way across the line, from one "town" to the next, just as the signal from those wires moves from one place to another.
Another interesting moment of alliteration comes in line 6, where the sharp /p/ sound echoes in "picked" and "played" (as well as in the word "up," which is an example of consonance). The speaker sees the telephone and/or the wires as being like a musical instrument, and this alliteration is itself playful and musical. Later, the strong /b/ sounds of "ballroom," "Bowed," and "bright" might evoke the weighty gaze of the moon as it looks down on human activities below.
Finally, alliteration joins the "telegraph wires" with the "tones / that Empty human bones" in the poem's closing couplet—a flourish that adds emphasis to this disturbing statement about the relationship between people and the things they create.
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 1: “Take telegraph”
- Line 3: “Towns,” “to towns”
- Line 6: “picked,” “played”
- Line 9: “ballroom”
- Line 10: “Bowed,” “bright”
- Line 11: “telegraph,” “tones”
-
Caesura
-
Consonance
-
Enjambment
-
Metaphor
-
Metonymy
-
Repetition
-
Synecdoche
-
-
"Telegraph Wires" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Telegraph wires
- Moor
- Heather
- Daintily
- Airs
- Unearthly
- Withers
- Ballroom
- Tones
-
(Location in poem: Line 1: “Take telegraph wires,”)
A network of cables initially for transmitting telegraph signals. Many of these wires were later re-used when telephone technology came along.
-
Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Telegraph Wires”
-
Form
"Telegraph Wires" has 12 lines broken up into six two-line couplets. Each couplet forms a rhyming pair, and this makes the poem feel uniform, steady, and predictable. The poem has a sense of order and structure that might evoke humanity's desire to control its environment—to tame those "lonely moor[s]" by stringing wires across.
-
Meter
"Telegraph Wires" doesn't use a regular meter. It's not quite a free verse poem, however, given its steady form and rhyme scheme. On one level, then, the poem feels distinctly controlled, made up of quick rhyming couplets. And yet within these couplets, the rhythm is unpredictable and lines vary widely in terms of syllable count. This subtle tension between control and variation keeps the poem feeling surprising and strange. It might also evoke the tension between the way human technology grants people a sense of control over the world while also sometimes exceeding humanity's grasp.
-
Rhyme Scheme
"Telegraph Wires" has a very regular rhyme scheme, with each couplet forming a rhyming pair:
AA BB CC DD EE FF
Most of these couplets feature perfect rhymes (i.e., "heather"/"weather"), though the first ("moor"/"ear") and fourth ("airs"/"withers") use slant rhyme.
On one level, these rhymes remind readers that this is a poem: a carefully crafted piece of writing. Rhyme connotes a certain control over language, which ties in with the fact that this is a poem about a kind of communications technology—that is, a piece of technology that allows people to talk to each other over vast distances. The quick, regular rhymes might also make the poem sound a little sing-songy, perhaps even undermining the seriousness of the technology at hand.
-
-
“Telegraph Wires” Speaker
-
The speaker doesn't reveal much about themselves in "Telegraph Wires." In the beginning, they talk in general terms, perhaps addressing the reader directly in line 2's "your ear." But "your" can also function as an indefinite pronoun (e.g., "one's"). Either way, the speaker wants the reader to see modern technology with fresh eyes—to notice its strange, alien qualities.
On the one hand, the speaker seems awed by technology's ability to change a landscape. On the other, the pessimistic final image suggests that the speaker also feels there is something deceptive and dark about this technology.
-
-
“Telegraph Wires” Setting
-
It seems likely that the poem is set somewhere in the United Kingdom, given the presence of telegraph wires, moorland, heather, and, of course, "bad weather!" Of course, it might be set anywhere with "telegraph wires" extending over a vast tract of uncultivated land.
The poem particularly focuses on the way that technology changes this setting, connecting distant towns for example. The last lines then zoom out to consider things from the moon's perspective. Seen from outer space, humanity technology (and, indeed, humanity itself) seems fragile and even absurd.
-
-
Literary and Historical Context of “Telegraph Wires”
-
Literary Context
Ted Hughes was one of the foremost English writers of the 20th century. He produced numerous volumes of poetry, translations, essays, and letters, even serving for a while as the Poet Laureate of England. His first collection, The Hawk in the Rain, had a seismic impact upon publication in 1957; it was seen as a challenge to poets of the older generation, who often wrote with greater emphasis on formal structure and emotional restraint.
"Telegraph Wires" was published in Hughes's 1989 collection titled Wolfwatching. The poems in this collection feature themes common to Hughes's poetry, including the power of the natural world. Hughes's poetry was also often inspired by the animal kingdom and the Yorkshire moors of his childhood (see: "Moors," Hughes's verse response to photographs by Fay Godwin included in his collection Remains of Elmet.)
In their focus on nature's at times overwhelming might, Hughes's poems seem to draw on the tradition of Romantic poets like William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley. But while those earlier poets tended to express an awe-filled appreciation of nature's wonder and grandeur, Hughes's poetry generally concentrates more on the primal, frightening energies that exist within the natural world, as well as the relationship between desire, survival, violence, and death.
Historical Context
"Telegraph Wires" poem was published in 1989, relatively late in Hughes's career. By this time, he was serving as Poet Laureate of England—essentially the Queen's official poet and ambassador for poetry more generally. Hughes had acquired considerable fame and notoriety by this time, in large part because of his marriage to fellow poet Sylvia Plath.
The poem asks the reader to look at "telegraph wires" with fresh —to notice their strange, living quality. While telegraphs are a communication technology distinct from telephones (telegraphs use signal tones and codes, rather than transmissions of the human voice), the speaker seems to be talking about telephony here. Telephone lines did—and sometimes still do—use cabling systems initially put in place for telegraphs. By 1989, pretty much the entirety of the United Kingdom was connected via telephone.
-
-
More “Telegraph Wires” Resources
-
External Resources
-
Ted Hughes and the Moors — View pages from Hughes's book of poetry published in collaboration with photographer Fay Godwin, featuring Godwin's photographs of the Yorkshire landscape.
-
Five Views of Ted Hughes — Listen to a series of short radio documentaries exploring different aspects of Hughes's life and work.
-
Hughes's Influence — Watch contemporary poet Alice Oswald discussing Ted Hughes's work.
-
Ted Hughes on Film — Watch a documentary about the poet.
-
Telecommunications — A short history of the telephone (and telegraph).
-
-
LitCharts on Other Poems by Ted Hughes
-
