Darkness beneath night's darkness had freed,
That rose slowly towards me, watching.
These are the concluding two lines of "Pike", a famous poem composed by Ted Hughes. These lines imply the threat of the destructive force inherent in nature.
The poem starts with a description of the pike and gradually develops the theme of terror and violence. The development reaches its climax in these last two lines of the poem. These lines occur at the end of the final anecdote. The speaker went with his fishing line to catch fish in a pond, which was mysteriously unfathomable. There ved pikes "too immense to stir". The time was evening. The speaker was aware of the killing nature of the pikes. In addition to that, the huge size and the solitary evening atmosphere made him conscious of some ominous threats. The speaker observes now that the giant pikes in the pond have some close relation with the primitive darkness in nature. Some giant figure of darkness rose slowly from nowhere and approached towards the speaker. The poet here suggests that the killing nature of the pike is, in fact, a part of the destructive element of nature.
