‘Your whole being rests lightly on your float, but not drowsily, very alert; so that the least twitch of the float arrives like an electric shock. And you are not only watching the float. You are aware, in a horizonless and slightly mesmerised way, like listening to the double bass in orchestral music, of the fish below there in the dark.’

Hughes, Ted (1967). ‘Poetry in the Making: Three Extracts.’ In ‘Winter Pollen: Occasional Prose.’ London: Faber and Faber. 10-15