ted hughes biography in short

Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate from 1984 to 1998, was one of the most popular and highly regarded British poets of the twentieth century. He won many literary prizes, including The Whitbread Book of the Year two years running, for in 1997 and in 1998, and was awarded an OBE in 1977, and the Order of Merit in 1998. He was an intense, imaginative writer, known for his stern, direct style and his depiction of the elemental forces of nature and animal life. Among other influences his writing drew upon his Yorkshire background, his parents' experiences, Shakespeare, and his interests in mythology, shamanism, and the occult.

Edward James Hughes was born in Mytholmroyd, a town surrounded by the bleak landscape of the Yorkshire moors. In childhood he learned to hunt and developed a profound knowledge of, and respect for, nature. His father told stories of his experiences during the First World War, and his mother talked of seeing ghosts. These experiences fed into his work, as seen for example in the collection of short stories, (1995), which includes ‘The Rain Horse’ (originally published in , 1967), a story of a man chased by a horse on a stormy moor, ‘The Wound’, about an injured soldier's demon-filled hallucinations, and ‘The Deadfall’ in which a ghost helps to free a fox cub caught in a trap.

Hughes started writing comic verse at the age of eleven and had poetry published in the school magazine. In 1948 he won an Open Exhibition to Pembroke College, Cambridge, and went up in 1951 after completing National Service. In the Army, stationed in Yorkshire, he spent much of his spare time reading Shakespeare, and was later to write a criticism of Shakespeare's work, (1992). He occasionally included Shakespearean references in his poems, and in ‘Setebos’ from (1998) he compares himself and his wife with Ferdinand and Miranda from .

At Cambridge he felt that studying English literature restricted his own writing style, so switched to archaeology and anthropology. He read the poetry of primitive societies and became interested in their folklore. After university he wrote under various pseudonyms while working as a rose gardener, night watchman, zoo attendant, and school teacher. In 1956, with a group of friends, he launched a poetry magazine, . The magazine ran for only one issue, but at its inauguration party he met the talented but troubled American writer Sylvia Plath, who was at Cambridge on a Fulbright Scholarship, and they married later that year.

Plath entered some of Hughes’s poems for a poetry competition, which he subsequently won. As a result, 1957 saw the publication of , a collection which demonstrated that Hughes did not shy away from the less attractive aspects of nature: apes adore their fleas, and the jaguar is on a short, fierce fuse. It also contains some of his best-known early poems such as ‘The Thought Fox’ and the title poem, ‘Hawk in the Rain’.

Once Plath had finished her Masters Degree, the couple travelled to the US, where Hughes wrote many of the poems which appeared in (1960), a volume which consolidated his reputation as a nature poet who was unafraid of the more violent aspects of the natural world. In the collection the pike is described as a malevolent killer, thrushes use a deadly eye to stab at prey, and even the water lily has horror nudging her root.

In 1959 they moved to England, and in 1960 their daughter, Frieda Rebecca, was born. Needing extra income Hughes wrote for various magazines and newspapers and did radio programmes for the BBC. In 1961 he published a book of children's verse, The unconventional family in the story includes an octopus grandmother and an aunt who turns into a witch.

In January 1962 their second child, Nicholas Farrar, was born but, soon afterwards, the marriage broke down. Plath suffered mood swings and fits of jealousy. Hughes met Assia Wevill and the couple had an affair which resulted in a daughter, Shura, being born in 1965. In 1962, the year in which he and Thom Gunn published , Hughes moved to London.

In 1963 Sylvia Plath committed suicide. Although this was her second suicide attempt, the first having occurred before she met Hughes, some blamed Hughes for her death. Hughes was deeply affected by the loss and wrote no new adult poetry for about three years. He concentrated on children's books, such as (1963), a series of children's Aesop-like fables, (1963), and (1964). He also wrote radio plays for children including (1964), (1965), and (1965).

By 1966 Hughes had started writing for adults again and was working on the poems which would appear in and . The poems in (1967) combine his interests in mythology and nature. The title was borrowed from the name of a troll-like character in the fourteenth century poem, .

In 1968, Hughes wrote , his best-known children's story, which was adapted into a film (1999), which uses the character created by Hughes but in a different setting. In both stories a huge metal man arrives mysteriously on earth. In the giant saves the world from a dragon-like creature the size of Australia. is set in Cold War America and the arrival of the giant sparks fears of a Soviet attack. The giant saves a town from destruction when a nuclear missile is launched.

Another tragedy occurred in Hughes's life in 1969 when Assia Wevill killed herself and their daughter. A year later Hughes married his second wife, Carol Orchard and the family settled in Devon. In 1970, Hughes wrote in which he argued that there is no single or ideal form of poetry. In 1971 he developed the language ‘Orghast’ which was a form of wordless communication aimed at freeing actors from the boundaries of language.

In (1972) Hughes presented a new, nihilistic mythology. In the USA in 1958 he and Plath had been friendly with sculptor and graphic artist Leonard Baskin, who sculpted crows and suggested that Hughes write about them. This subject, together with Hughes's interest in the supernatural and mythology, led to the creation of the character, Crow. In Hughes’s Crow legend God has a nightmare and feels a hand at his throat. At the same time Man has come up from earth to ask God to take back mankind. God is outraged and challenges the nightmare hand to do better. Crow is born. A series of Crow poems followed which contain a fatherly but fallible God, and the amoral Crow, who is partly drawn from Native American literature.

In the mid seventies Hughes retreated from public life and worked on his father-in-law’s farm. Many of his works were published during this time including (1977), and (1979), presenting further combinations of nature and mythology.

In (1992) Hughes proposed the theory that the myths established in the poems and formed the basis for many of Shakespeare's later plays. was published in 1997, and in 1998, , which soon became one of his best-known collections. The poems address his relationship with Sylvia Plath from their first meeting until after her death. The poems are a personal tribute to Plath, and show the strength of their relationship as well as its tempestuous nature.

: (1957); (1960); , with Thom Gunn (1962); (1967); (1967); (1972); (1977); (1979), (1992); (1998). : (1961); (1963); (1963); (1964); (1964); (1965); (1965); (1968). (1970); (1992); (1995).

Author: Sarah Jones

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Ted Hughes Biography

Birthday: August 17 , 1930 ( Leo )

Born In: Mytholmroyd

Ted Hughes was an English poet who was the Poet Laureate of England from 1984 until his death. He is considered as one of the best poets of his generation. Growing up in the valleys and moors of Yorkshire, he developed an early fascination with animals. He had a natural talent for writing, and encouraged by his teachers and elder sister, he had started writing by the age of fifteen and by sixteen he knew he wanted to be a poet. Therefore, after graduating from Cambridge, he concentrated on his poetry and at the age of 27 he released his first book of poems, which not only earned critical acclaim, but also established him as a poet. Later he started writing books for children and quickly made his mark in that field. However, his marriage to another celebrated poet Sylvia Plath was not successful and he was blamed for the latter’s suicide. Although he kept quiet for the sake of their two children, he talked about their complex relationship in ‘Birthday Letters’, a book of poems published just before his death. Today, he is ranked as one of the best poets of his generation and also one of the best writers of the 20th century.

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Died At Age: 68

Spouse/Ex-: Carol Orchard (m. 1970-1998) Sylvia Plath

siblings: Gerald, Olwyn

children: Alexandra Tatiana Elise, Frieda Hughes Nicholas Hughes

Born Country: England

Poets Novelists

Died on: October 28 , 1998

place of death: Devon

education: Schofield Street junior school, Mexborough Grammar School,

awards: 1984 - Guardian Children's Fiction Prize - Costa Book of the Year

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What inspired ted hughes to write poetry.

Ted Hughes was inspired by nature, ancient myths, and his own life experiences to write poetry that often explored themes of power, violence, and the natural world.

What impact did Ted Hughes have on the literary world?

Ted Hughes is considered one of the most important poets of the 20th century and had a significant impact on the literary world with his powerful and evocative poetry.

What were some recurring themes in Ted Hughes's poetry?

Some recurring themes in Ted Hughes's poetry include nature, violence, power dynamics, the human experience, and the relationship between humans and the natural world.

What poetic techniques did Ted Hughes frequently use in his work?

Ted Hughes was known for his use of vivid imagery, powerful language, and a strong sense of rhythm and sound in his poetry, creating works that were both emotionally intense and intellectually engaging.

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Ted Hughes was not only a renowned poet, but also a skilled artist who designed many of his own book covers.

Hughes had a deep connection to nature and often drew inspiration from the landscapes of his native England.

Despite his fame, Hughes remained a private individual and rarely gave interviews or public appearances.

Hughes was known for his love of animals, particularly crows, which frequently appeared in his poetry as symbolic figures.

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(1930–98). The work of British poet Ted Hughes grew out of the dialect of his native West Yorkshire. His early poems depict the ferocity of the predatory animals, birds, and human hunters he observed on Yorkshire’s bleak moors. In poems such as The Jaguar and Hawk Roosting , disjunctive lines portray the intense savagery and vitality of animal life. Intensely realistic, his studies of the natural world also function symbolically to connect animal and human experiences. Ever present in Hughes’s work are elements of folklore and myth from diverse sources, with which he shaped his own mythology.

Edward James Hughes was born on Aug. 17, 1930, in Mytholmroyd, a mill town in West Yorkshire, England, to parents William Henry Hughes and Edith (Farrar) Hughes. William Hughes, a carpenter, survived the Dardanelles campaign of World War I, and his stories of its catastrophic losses imprinted young Ted’s imagination with scenes of violence and death. At the age of 7 Ted moved with his family to Mexborough, Yorkshire, and at Mexborough Grammar School he began to write poetry. He won a scholarship to Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he studied English literature. In his last year he changed his course of study to archaeology and anthropology, subjects that would deeply permeate his verse.

After graduating with a master’s degree in 1959, Hughes held a number of odd jobs while occasionally publishing poems in university poetry magazines. At Cambridge he met and married U.S. poet Sylvia Plath in 1956. Hughes’s first volume of verse, The Hawk in the Rain (1957), was published during the couple’s visit to the United States. The collection, studded with forceful and unsentimental nature poems, won first prize in the 1958 Guinness Poetry Awards.

Hughes taught briefly at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst from 1957 to 1958 and then decided to devote all of his time to writing. Supported by a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation, he stayed in the United States until 1959. Lupercal (1960), written in the United States, won the Somerset Maugham award and the Hawthornden prize. Critics praised Hughes’s depiction of the violence and vitality of the natural world and its affinity with human life. Selected Poems (1962) contained the work of both Hughes and Thom Gunn, a poet closely associated with Hughes.

Hughes and Plath had separated by 1963, the year in which she committed suicide. For almost three years after the death of Plath, Hughes ceased writing works for adults. He did, however, publish books of prose and poetry for children during this period. One of his most notable children’s works was the fanciful tale The Iron Man (1968), published in the United States under the title The Iron Giant . In 1964 he founded the magazine Modern Poetry in Translation , which he coedited until 1971. In 1967 Wodwo , a collection of poems and prose pieces that manifested Hughes’s growing fascination with mythology, appeared as his next major work. Later came Crow (1970), in which a symbolic, mythical bird gives a nihilistic account of humankind’s history and its destruction. Gaudete (1977), like Crow , abandons the traditional metrical patterns and realism of his earlier work. Originally conceived as a film, the cryptic Gaudete incorporates elements of various Christian and pagan stories of death and resurrection.

Later volumes mark Hughes’s return to the natural world, albeit one depicted with a newfound tenderness. Hughes collaborated with photographers to produce River (1983) and Remains of Elmet (1979), a book of verse that recounts the experiences of Hughes’s childhood. His Selected Poems, 1957–1981 was published in 1982. In 1984 he became poet laureate of the United Kingdom. Rain-Charm for the Duchy, and Other Laureate Poems was published in 1992.

Throughout his career, Hughes wrote many pieces for the theater, published literary criticism, and edited collections of other poets’ work, including an anthology of Emily Dickinson’s poems. For the collection Tales from Ovid (1997), Hughes translated 24 tales from Ovid’s Metamorphoses . Hughes edited several collections of Plath’s writings, including The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath (1980), and elegized his wife in the volume Wolfwatching (1985). Hughes devoted an entire collection of poems, entitled Birthday Letters (1998), to the subject of his life with Plath. Many of the poems in Birthday Letters respond or refer to Plath’s poetry. Hughes’s intimate portrayal of his marriage to Plath drew an abundance of critical attention in both the United States and England. Hughes died on Oct. 28, 1998, in London.

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Edward James (Ted) Hughes was born in Mytholmroyd, in the West Riding district of Yorkshire, on August 17, 1930. His childhood was quiet and dominately rural. When he was seven years old, his family moved to the small town of Mexborough in South Yorkshire, and the landscape of the moors of that area informed his poetry throughout his life. Hughes graduated from Cambridge in 1954. A few years later, in 1956, he co-founded the literary magazine St. Botolph’s Review with a handful of other editors. At the launch party for the magazine, he met Sylvia Plath. A few short months later, on June 16, 1956, they were married.

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Poems & Poets

Ted Hughes: Poet of Myth, Nature... and a Curse

Ted Hughes has been making the rounds of late: This time Dwight Garner of The New York Times takes a look at the newly published Hughes biography written by Oxford professor Jonathan Bate, which we made mention of earlier here . From NYT :

Ted Hughes was an elemental poet of myth and nature, his verse easy to parody. In the late 1960s, the British satirical magazine Private Eye mimicked his work in a manner that Jonathan Bate, in his new biography of Hughes, describes this way: “crow, blood, mud, death, short line, break, no verb.” Hughes (1930-1998) was elemental in other ways. Hulking, Heathcliff-like, he had large ink-stained hands and a face “like an Easter Island statue,” as one of his lovers put it. A lock of hair consistently flopped over one eye. His effect on women was incalculable. When Sylvia Plath, his future wife, met him at a party in 1956, she wrote in her diary about “that big, dark, hunky boy, the only one there huge enough for me.” His lover Assia Wevill said of him: “He is one of God’s best creatures. Ever. Ever.” This poet’s pheromonal impact was such, Mr. Bate writes in “Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life,” that one woman who met Hughes at a party “was so viscerally attracted to him that all she could do was go to the ladies’ room and vomit.” Extreme good looks, always, are blessing and curse. This biography contends that Hughes’s life was cursed in multiple, overlapping ways. He surely brought some of the maledictions on himself. As we know from earlier biographies of him (and from biographies of Plath, and from dual biographies), his life was rich with incident and tragedy, so much so that a writer would have to be a fool to utterly botch this story. Mr. Bate is no fool. A professor of English literature at Oxford and the author of many books, including “The Soul of the Age” (2009), a well-regarded intellectual history of Shakespeare, he has delivered an incisive, humane and deeply absorbing account of Hughes’s life and work. One of this book’s claims on our attention is that Mr. Bate is the first biographer to have had access to thousands of pages of Hughes’s unpublished writing, including journals, at the British Library. We are made to salivate at prose and poems that still may emerge, including Hughes’s long correspondence with a friend, the poet Seamus Heaney. [...]

Learn more at The New York Times.

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Famous poet / 1930--1  •  Ranked #44 in the top 500 poets

Ted Hughes was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. His work remains relevant today for its explorations of the natural world , mythology , and the darker aspects of human nature . Hughes's poetry is characterized by its direct and visceral language, often drawing on animal imagery and a raw, elemental energy .

Considered one of the most important poets of his generation, Hughes was influenced by the modernist movement and the work of poets such as W.B. Yeats, Dylan Thomas , and Robert Graves . He was also deeply interested in shamanism and the power of myth. Hughes's own poetry is often concerned with the primal forces that lie beneath the surface of everyday life, and his work explores themes of violence, sexuality, and the struggle between humanity and nature.

Ted Hughes served as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1984 until his death. He is remembered as a visionary poet whose work continues to challenge and inspire readers today.

Hawk Roosting

Examination at the womb-door, famous poets ( ranked #44 ).

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Poet, children's author, translator and editor. There wasn't much Ted Hughes couldn't turn his hand to in a lengthy career spanning over 40 years. Hughes won acclaim internationally for his poetry, often taking an unflinching view of the natural world around him. But his troubled personal life was not without its controversies. Here we will look at the life and work of former Poet Laureate Ted Hughes. 

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Ted Hughes: biography

Ted Hughes was born on 17 August 1930 in the Yorkshire town of Mytholmroyd. He was a poet, translator, and children's author. Hughes served in the Royal Air Force before going on to study anthropology and archaeology at Cambridge. At Cambridge, Ted Hughes developed an interest in mythology, which later went on to influence his work. In 1956, Hughes married Sylvia Plath, the American author and poet.

In 1957, Ted Hughes won the First Book Contest. The competition was run by the Poetry Center and judged by esteemed poets such as W.H. Auden and Marianne Moore. The Hawk and the Rain (1957) won Hughes international acclaim and commercial success.

Ted Hughes' success continued throughout his long career, in his poetry collections, such as Lupercal (1960) and Birthday Letters (1998), children's literature The Iron Man (1968), and anthologies such as The Rattle Bag (1982). Ted Hughes was also the executor of Sylvia Plath's literary estate, editing much of her work.

Ted Hughes had a troubled personal life. His first wife Sylvia Plath committed suicide shortly after their separation in 1963. The woman Hughes left Plath for, Assia Wevill, also took her own life and, tragically, the life of their young daughter Shura. Ted Hughes married again in 1970 and spent the remainder of his life writing and farming in Devon. He was Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death in 1998 from cancer.

Controversy

Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath's marriage was a turbulent one. Hughes was unfaithful in their marriage and Plath struggled with mental health difficulties. Hughes faced criticism for his role in their marriage and her death.

As Plath's literary executor, it was revealed that he had destroyed some of Plath's journals and heavily edited her collection Ariel (1965). This was seen by some as a form of censorship.

Ted Hughes: poems

Ted Hughes was hailed as one of the greatest poets of his generation. He even earned the prestigious position of Poet Laureate. Hughes' poetry was inspired largely by animals, nature, and mythology. Often Hughes would take an unsentimental look at the natural world around him. Here we will look at some popular poems from his lengthy career.

'The Thought-Fox' (1957)

From the collection The Hawk in the Rain, ' The Thought-Fox' is about writer's block. The struggle to write is represented by the fox in the title. The poem is said to be inspired by a dream Hughes had while studying at Cambridge. In the poem the speaker sees little in the darkness of midnight and the page in front of them is blank. From the darkness a fox appears and leaps into the speaker's mind and a poem is formed: 'The page is printed.'

The poem is written in free verse so it has no fixed rhyme or meter , although the poem's use of alliteration provides some rhythm. The poem is formed of 24 lines, formed by using six quatrains . The use of stanzas could be seen as a way to make the poem more structured.

Free verse is poetry that does not follow strict rules regarding rhyme and meter .

A quatrain is a stanza that consists of four lines.

'Snowdrop' (1960)

'Snowdrop' was published in Hughes' collection Lupercal (1960). It is a poem that explores the harshness of winter. The snowdrop of the title refers to the flower rather than the type of weather. In the poem, we see three animals; a crow, a mouse, and a weasel struggling to adapt to the winter.

The snowdrop alone is capable of withstanding the brutality of winter. The snowdrop is personified by the pronoun 'she'. The poem consists of 8 lines of free verse . Though there is no strict rhyme scheme , the poem does make use of slant rhyme .

Slant rhyme is the use of two words that do not quite rhyme but sound similar. These words usually have spelling patterns that are the same with either the consonants or vowels differing. For example, ' worm' and ' swarm'.

'A Picture of Otto' (1998)

'A Picture of Otto' is a poem that is a response to another poem, 'Daddy' (1965) b y Sylvia Plath. It is from the collection Birthday Letters. In the poem, the speaker directly addresses Plath's father Otto.

In Plath's poem, her father is described as a tyrant. In Hughes' poem, the speaker meets Otto in the underworld and is sympathetic toward him. Both Hughes and Otto are depicted negatively by Plath and the speaker references that the two are indistinguishable from her. The poem is also written in free verse and is formed of six quatrains.

'Telegraph Wires' (1989)

Published in the collection Wolfwatching (1989), 'Telegraph Wires' is a poem that explores the relationship between the man-made and the natural. The speaker seems impressed by the ability of technology to connect towns through vast spaces.

However, the speaker is wary of how technology is ultimately no match for the natural world. The poem consists of twelve lines that are made up of six rhyming couplets. This neat order could be an attempt at the controlled nature of technology. There is no meter but the poem's form and rhyme scheme suggest it is not quite free verse.

Ted Hughes: books

Ted Hughes did not restrict himself to solely poetry. He also tried his hand at children's literature and translating, not to mention anthologising and editing other poetry collections. Here we will look at a range of books from Ted Hughes.

Birthday Letters (1998)

Ted Hughes' final poetry collection was published just three months before his death. The collection contains 88 poems and won many awards. It is largely thought to be a response to Hughes' marriage to Sylvia Plath and her suicide.

For 35 years, Ted Hughes had refused to speak of their marriage. He was heavily criticised for his behaviour during their marriage and after Plath's death. This controversy could be a reason why the collection became a bestseller. The collection was also highly rated by critics, winning many prizes including The T.S. Eliot Prize for poetry and The Whitbread British Book of the Year in 1998.

Notable poems in the Birthday Letters include 'Night Ride on Ariel', 'Pictures of Otto', and 'St Botolph's'.

The Iron Man (1968)

Ted Hughes wrote a science fiction book for children. It tells the story of a colossal 'man' made of metal. The Iron Man arrives in England mysteriously and begins wreaking havoc on the countryside. The Iron Man keeps eating the surrounding farmyard machinery.

A young boy befriends the Iron Man and takes him to a scrapyard where he can eat. This brings peace to the community and acceptance for the Iron Man. The book ends with the titular man saving the world from a dragon from outer space. The story can be seen as a criticism of war because the Iron Man is attracted to the earth by the noises and sounds created by war.

Crow (1970)

This poetry collection was written between 1966 and 1969. This followed the three years after Plath's death when Hughes barely wrote. The poems feature the crow as a character throughout the collection.

Ted Hughes took inspiration from myths around the world. Hughes originally wanted to write Crow in narrative form but felt he could not finish the project after the death of Assia Wevill. The collection caused some controversy for its perceived attack on Christianity.

Notable poems in the collection Crow include 'Crow's Theology', 'Crow Frowns' and 'Crow'.

Tales From Ovid (1997)

This is a collection of stories based on Ovid's Metamorphoses (8AD). The book consists of 24 stories translated and compiled by Ted Hughes. As in the original book from Ovid, the major theme is change. Most of the stories compiled feature its characters undergoing physical change.

The book uses Hughes' keen interest in mythology, earlier explored in the collection Crow. Tales from Ovid include stories such as ' Echo and Narcissus', 'Phaeton', 'Procne', and 'Actaeon'.

Ted Hughes: facts

Some interesting facts about Ted Hughes include:

Ted Hughes was stationed as a ground mechanic for the RAF (Royal Air Force) before going on to study at Cambridge University.

While at Cambridge, Ted Hughes switched degrees from English literature to archaeology and anthropology. Hughes felt that it was too difficult to write poetry while studying it.

Ted Hughes was a great believer in portents. He is said to be partly influenced to change his degree after having the same dream that inspired the poem 'The Thought-Fox'.

2009 saw the inaugural Ted Hughes Award, which celebrates new work in poetry.

Ted Hughes wrote his first poem at the age of fifteen.

Ted Hughes - Key takeaways

• Ted Hughes was born in the Yorkshire town of Mytholmroyd in 1930.
• In 1956, Ted Hughes married American poet Sylvia Plath. Their marriage turned out to be a tumultuous one and Plath committed suicide in 1963.
• Ted Hughes' first collection was The Hawk in the Rain in 1957. It won the first book prize run by The Poetry Center.
• Ted Hughes' poetry often takes an unsentimental look at the natural world.
• The poetry collection Birthday Letters won Ted Hughes great acclaim, winning many prizes and becoming a bestseller.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Ted Hughes

What is Ted Hughes' most famous poem?

Ted Hughes' most famous earliest poem is 'The Thought-Fox'.

Where did Ted Hughes live?

From 1970, Ted Hughes lived in Devon, United Kingdom.

Who was married to Ted Hughes?

Sylvia Plath was most famously married to Ted Hughes. He later married Carol Orchard.

Who is Ted Hughes?

Ted Hughes was an English poet, translator, and children's author. He was also Poet Laurette from 1984 till 1998.

Where did Ted Hughes grow up?

Ted Hughes grew up in the Yorkshire town of Mytholmroyd.

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10 of the Best Ted Hughes Poems Everyone Should Read

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Ted Hughes (1930-98) remains one of the most divisive English poets of the second half of the twentieth century, and not just because of the controversy surrounding his marriage to Sylvia Plath.

But whereas a very different poet like, say, Philip Larkin has attracted criticism because of things he did or views he held, many still find themselves able to enjoy Larkin’s poetry without necessarily being a fan of the man. But Ted Hughes’s poems are almost as controversial as Ted Hughes the man.

Where should the poetry fan begin when seeking to explore his work? Or what are the ‘highlights’ from his long and prolific poetic career? It’s impossible to narrow it down to a definitive list of ten poems, but in this post we’ve tried to pick ten of the finest Ted Hughes poems which give an indication of his range while also, we hope, emphasising what made Hughes such a distinctive voice in English poetry.

1. ‘ The Thought-Fox ’.

This poem, from Hughes’s first collection The Hawk in the Rain (1957), explores the writer’s struggle to find inspiration, which is depicted in the poem by the fox.Rejecting the typical poetic trope of the stars, the poet is gratified to sense the arrival of the ‘thought-fox’, a fox whose presence gradually becomes clearer and more vivid. ‘The Thought-Fox’ is one of the most celebrated poetic accounts of the act of writing poetry and the attendant search for poetic inspiration.

The poem had its origins in one of the most significant events of Hughes’s young life: while he was studying English at the University of Cambridge, Hughes had a dream that a large fox walked into his room, its eyes filled with pain. It came up to his desk, laid a bleeding hand on the blank page where Hughes had tried and failed to write his essay, and said: ‘Stop this – you are destroying us.’

This story probably provided Hughes with the genesis for ‘The Thought-Fox’ – a poem in which Hughes struggles, not to write an analysis of a poem, but the poem itself. We’ve offered some further thoughts on this poem here .

2. ‘ Snowdrop ’.

This poem offers a great way into the world of Ted Hughes’s poetry. It’s short, almost Imagist in its concision and focus on its central image – that of the white flower, described memorably with its ‘ pale head heavy as metal ’ in this eight-line masterpiece.

Rather than giving us an idyllic or sentimental poem about the fragile or delicate beauty of the snowdrop, Hughes describes the flower in terms that recall the predatory weasel and crow, with the snowdrop’s ‘pale head heavy as metal’ (that last word so near, and yet so far, from ‘petal’) picking up on the weasel and crow which look as if they have been ‘moulded in brass’.

3. ‘ Pike ’.

One of Hughes’s most frequently anthologised poems, ‘Pike’ is another poem from quite early on in his career. Hughes conveys the idea of this fish, ‘three inches long’, being somewhat bigger and more dangerous than it actually is, inviting us to view the fish as the descendant of a larger, primitive pike which once swam the world’s waters.

4. ‘ View of a Pig ’.

This poem almost reads like a sequel to the pig-slaughtering scene in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure – and Hardy was an important influence on Hughes. The speaker of this poem looks down at a dead pig and remarks how utterly dead it is, and contrasts its now deadened and lifeless state with the warm, active creature that is the living pig. This is done unsentimentally and without inviting judgment about the poor pig’s fate.

5. ‘ Night-Ride on Ariel ’.

This is the one poem from Hughes’s 1998 collection Birthday Letters – which topped the bestseller lists when it appeared, shortly before Hughes’s death – which we’ve included on this list, but the poems Hughes wrote about his relationship with Sylvia Plath form an important part of his work and ‘Night-Ride on Ariel’ is a good example of how Hughes engages with Plath’s work in Birthday Letters , poring over Plath’s troubled life, her depression and her electric-shock treatment, while he looked on, unable to help.

6. ‘ King of Carrion ’.

Hughes wrote the cycle of poems about ‘Crow’ in the late 1960s, several years after Sylvia Plath’s death. Crow was a far more experimental and avant-garde book than Hughes’s previous volumes of poetry, and ‘King of Carrion’ is an accessible but representative poem from this enthralling if unsettling collection. Described by Hughes’s biographer Sir Jonathan Bate as an anti-bible,  Crow  is arguably Hughes’s masterpiece.

7. ‘ Hawk Roosting ’.

Here is another great Hughes poem about a bird of prey, in the same tradition as his Crow sequence of poems. The hawk is the speaker of this poem, declaring his dominion over the world and asserting that just as he has always been in charge, so he will remain the mighty creature he is, the pinnacle of Creation.

8. ‘ Esther’s Tomcat ’.

This wonderful poem might easily have featured in our pick of the best cat poems , but we only discovered this classic Hughes poem after we’d compiled that list. So it features here in our rundown of great Ted Hughes poems, for its brilliant eye for detail when it comes to describing animals – and few poets have had a better eye for such a thing than Hughes.

9. ‘ The Martyrdom of Bishop Farrar ’.

This early Ted Hughes poem, about the Bishop of St. Davids in Wales who was burnt at the stake in 1555 under the Marian persecutions, contains Hughes’s trademark attention to the violence and pain inherent in the natural world. Hughes emphasises the bloody and horrific nature of Ferrar’s death (Hughes spells his name Farrar), but also stresses that Ferrar was defiant to the last.

10. ‘ Telegraph Wires ’.

Although he’s best-known as a nature poet Ted Hughes also wrote a number of fine poems about modern, man-made phenomena – if one can count telegraph wires as ‘modern’ in the late twentieth century. Hughes’s description of the wires connecting one town to the next ‘over the heather’ takes a characteristically sinister turn towards the end of the poem.

But nature is always there in a Ted Hughes poem, and so it is with ‘Telegraph Wires’. Immediately, we find ourselves among a ‘lonely moor’: it could almost be  Wuthering Heights  country, the landscape of Emily Brontë but also Sylvia Plath’s poem ‘Wuthering Heights’, as well as Hughes’s own homeland, of course (he grew up in Yorkshire).

As if the poet (or we, the reader) were able to create this landscape as easily as the telegraph wires were made by man, we are told to ‘Take telegraph wires’ together with that ‘moor’ in order to create something ‘alive’ …

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4 thoughts on “10 of the Best Ted Hughes Poems Everyone Should Read”

Ted Hughes is a favourite of mine. I studied his work many years ago and he never failed to surprise and move me!

Reblogged this on MorgEn Bailey – Creative Writing Guru and commented: I have some poetry coming up so this kicks it off…

thank you for sharing !

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Biography of Ted Hughes

Ted Hughes, one of Britain's most prominent 20th century poets, is known for poetry that explores the natural world alongside human experience. In the introduction to Poet to Poet: Ted Hughes, Simon Armitage called Hughes “a poet whose great exploit was to bring the inner workings of the human brain into the wide world, and at the same time draw the outside world into the mind.” Hughes’ verse delves into the dark side of man’s consciousness, exploring human conflict and its animal counterpart. Often fusing mythology and folklore against a pastoral setting, Hughes draws on the 18th and 19th century Romantic movement, while his active, booming language recalls Shakespeare. In addition to poetry, Hughes wrote children’s books and plays.

Hughes was born in Yorkshire, England in 1930. He began writing poetry as child, heavily influenced by his rural surroundings and by his fascination with mythology and folklore. After spending two years in the Royal Air Force, Hughes enrolled in Pembroke College in Cambridge in 1951. Hughes briefly pursued a degree in English literature, but decided to study anthropology and archaeology instead. After graduating from Cambridge, Hughes moved to London. When he wasn’t working odd jobs, he focused on his writing.

On February 25th, 1956, Hughes met Sylvia Plath at the first and only launch party of a literary magazine he founded with Cambridge friends. Both Hughes and Plath, who was studying at Cambridge on a Fulbright Scholarship, wrote about this encounter in their journals. The couple married later that year. Hughes and Plath briefly moved to America, where both poets took up University teaching positions, but eventually settled in Devon, England. The couple had two children, Frieda and Nicholas. Though tumultuous, their marriage lasted until Plath’s suicide in 1963. Notably, Hughes destroyed Plath’s final journals.

Hughes’ first collection of poetry, The Hawk and The Rain, was published in 1957 to glowing reviews. The volume received the Galbraith prize. Hughes’ later volumes, including Crow and the illustrated Flowers and Insects, continued with the themes of nature present in The Hawk and The Rain. His poetry often features commanding, omnipresent first-person speakers, powerful enjambments, and brutal, uncompromising perspectives of mankind. His verse is customarily hyperbolic and populated with onomatopoeia, both of which contribute to the dramatic overtones of his work.

Controversy surrounding Hughes’ private life is discussed just as frequently, if not more, than his poetry. It was widely believed that Hughes’ behavior, including sexual affairs, drove Plath to suicide. However, in 1998, Hughes published his last collection of poetry, Birthday Letters , which explored his turbulent relationship with Sylvia Plath. In a review for The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani wrote that the poems in Birthday Letters “dazzle not only with verbal dexterity but also with clear-hearted emotion. They are clearly the work of a poet writing out of the deepest core of his being.” The collection received the T.S. Eliot Prize.

Hughes died three months after the publication of Birthday Letters. He was the Poet laureate of England, a position he’d held since 1984.

Study Guides on Works by Ted Hughes

Bayonet charge ted hughes.

Ted Hughes was an English poet who was known for his themes of nature and animals in his poetry. He was born in 1930 in Yorkshire, England, and served in the Royal Air Force before studying English literature at Cambridge University. He was...

• Study Guide

Big Poppy Ted Hughes

"Big Poppy," featured in Ted Hughes' Flowers and Insects: Some Birds and a Pair of Spiders (1986), is a poem about sex and death. A first-person speaker dramatically narrates the path of a bumble bee as it guzzles nectar from a poppy flower. He...

Birthday Letters Ted Hughes

Birthday Letters is Ted Hughes' final collection of poetry. It was published in 1998, months prior to Hughes' death. It contains eighty eight poems and is viewed as the poet's most successful and revered work. It is 208 pages long.

Birthday...

Crow : From the Life and Songs of the Crow Ted Hughes

Crow , a book of poetry by Ted Hughes, was published in 1970 by the esteemed British publisher Faber and Faber. It is widely considered one of Hughes' most important works. Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow marks the second phase of Hughes'...

Hawk Roosting Ted Hughes

Ted Hughes was an English poet and children’s literature writer who is often deemed one of the greatest poet of his generation. His work is most often concerned with themes of nature and animal world.

“Hawk Roosting” is one such example, where an...

The Poems of Ted Hughes Ted Hughes

Ted Hughes was born rural North England in 1930. The Hughes were a family of modest means with Irish heritage. Hughes early life was filled with experiences of nature, and the young boy became an avid fisherman. In Grammar School he was encouraged...

The Thought-Fox Ted Hughes

Sometimes, writing feels easy: you sit at your desk, uncap your pen, and a poem pours out of you. But other times you struggle to figure out the first line, and you find yourself waiting for the words to form, for inspiration to strike. This is...

Wind (Ted Hughes poem) Ted Hughes

"Wind," published in Ted Hughes' first collection The Hawk and The Rain (1957) , operates on two levels of poetic meaning. On the surface, the poem narrates a destructive storm. However, the poem's final stanzas suggest that Hughes uses the storm's...

Work and Play

By Ted Hughes

‘Work and Play’ exposes humanity’s nonsensical need for leisure while celebrating the delight and fulfillment of nature’s ceaseless labor.

Nationality: English

He was Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death.

Key Poem Information

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Central Message: People seek out an enjoyment and relaxation that eludes them but is savored by nature.

Themes: Beauty , Nature , Relationships

Speaker: Someone who values nature over humanity.

Emotions Evoked: Disgust , Frustration , Joyfulness

Poetic Form: Free Verse

Time Period: 20th Century

Ted Hughes illustrates two captivating scenes that depict nature's industrious beauty alongside humanity's lazy scramble for leisure using vivid imagery to bring both to life.

Poem Analyzed by Steven Ward

B.A. Honors in English Literature

‘Work and Play,’ a characteristically humorous but scathing piece by Ted Hughes, calls to mind a familiar proverb that communicates the importance of leisure time: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Yet it’s not so much the concept of a vacation that the poem’s speaker takes issue with but the off-putting and deeply ironic ways people choose to spend them.

Humanity, pictured as a chaotic and grotesque rabble on summer holiday, is compared across each stanza to the elegantly industrious swallow, who spends their flitting busily from chore to chore. This juxtaposition highlights the poet’s sardonic dismay over the belief that people have grown incompatible with nature, lacking the faculty to learn from it or even enjoy it.

Hughes' poem is a relatively straightforward comparison between two subjects to glorify one and criticize the other. As you read, you'll want to pay particular attention to the following points:

• In the first two stanzas , the speaker splits their attention between "the swallow of summer" and "the serpent of cars." Hughes ironically transforms humanity into an artificial animal, a mechanical, automotive snake.
• This seems to imply that, even when mimicking or miming nature, people fall short of the real thing. When the swallow is personified as being a skilled seamstress, this seems to only emphasize humanity's shortcomings, as it proves nature finds little difficulty in surpassing us.
• Pay close attention to words like "exhaust," "furnace," "transistors," "electric shock," and "petroleum," which appear throughout the poem and seem to sketch faint outlines of the unpleasant urban-industrial world being vacationed from.

Explore Work and Play

• 2 Analysis, Stanza by Stanza
• 3 Literary Devices

‘Work and Play’ by Ted Hughes compares the noble labors of a summer swallow to the ironically revolting leisure of human vacationers.

In the summer, the swallow works non-stop, appearing as a dark blue dot of sparkling energy. The bird swims through the air as a line of cars snakes through dust and exhaust searching for the ocean. Meanwhile, the swallow pierces the hot air and dips herself into a pond, an exquisite beauty. The serpentine line of cars arrives at the beach and each disembowels itself to reveal red, clambering bodies.

The swallow spends the summer crisscrossing the heavens, a seamstress cutting, threading, knotting their way over through the sky’s fabric. But the humans on vacation are lying down as if injured, horizontal, cooking themselves in the sun. Their faces are filled with anguish, their teeth grind sand, and their kids have wandered off, all while insects sting them.

Sunburnt bodies plagued with headaches return to their cars and bring the serpent back to life. The passengers are embroiled in arguments, tears, sticky sweat, and sand everywhere. The smell of petroleum starts to drift in from the engine. Outside, the swallow spirals in sunlight, skimming over the surface of a river, before returning to its perch.

The Poem Analysis Take

Expert Insights by Steven Ward

I find that 'Work and Play'  relies mainly on Hughes' use of imagery and figurative language to render nature as a beautiful ideal and humanity as being prone to repugnant laziness. This results in dramatic shifts to the syntax , cadence , and diction of his stanzas, which I believe accentuates the absurdly large difference between the swallow and "holiday people." The poem's tone also reflects the speaker's nuanced bias , sharing nothing but adoration for the former but regarding the latter with a palpable distaste, one that feels almost self-flagellating given that they too, presumably, are human. To me, this is what makes the poem teeter between sardonic humor and sincere reverence, as it plays on the reader's own run-ins with the chaos and not-always-relaxing experiences of a summer vacation. Hughes punctuates the ironic rat-race attitude we as people carry with us into our times of leisure, taking the moment to not only expose our laughable yet tragic faults but also reveal nature's splendor.

Analysis, Stanza by Stanza

The swallow of summer, she toils all the summer, A blue-dark knot of glittering voltage, A whiplash swimmer, a fish of the air. But the serpent of cars that crawls through the dust In shimmering exhaust Searching to slake Its fever in ocean Will play and be idle or else it will bust.

‘Work and Play’ unfolds around two distinctly different yet vividly dynamic and sweeping scenes. The first hones in on “the swallow of summer,” a bird whose hardworking nature earns it the adoration of the speaker, who marvels at its “glittering voltage / A whiplash swimmer, a fish of the air.” With poise and grace this “blue-dark knot” spends “all the summer” laboring without any need for play.

In contrast , the second is a slow-moving “serpent of cars that crawls through the dust / In shimmering exhaust.” Unlike the swallow, the snake (representing a natural predator of the bird as well) is not so sublime in the eyes of the speaker: its movements are languid and desperate—the only thing aglitter is the “shimmering exhaust” it leaves in its wake.

The swallow of summer, the barbed harpoon, She flings from the furnace, a rainbow of purples, Dips her glow in the pond and is perfect. But the serpent of cars that collapsed on the beach Disgorges its organs A scamper of colours Which roll like tomatoes Nude as tomatoes With sand in their creases To cringe in the sparkle of rollers and screech.

Stanza two further emphasizes the stark differences between the speaker’s perception of the swallow and the people spilling out of that foreboding “serpent of cars.” Hughes’ diction and imagery capture the extraordinary speed (“the barbed harpoon, / She flings from the furnace”) and colorful splendor (“a rainbow of purples, / Dips her glow in the pond and is perfect”) of the bird’s trajectory.

The arrival of humanity to the beach is not nearly so spectacular but rendered through macabre and visceral imagery. Dying in a “collapsed” heap on the shore, the serpent “disgorges its organs,” which turn out to be humans, fleshy and “nude as tomatoes.”

This “scamper of colours” is far less pleasing to the eye than the chromatic beauty associated with the swallow. Despite being a place of leisure, the beach, with its “sand in their creases,” is also revealed to be an ironic source of discomfort.

Stanza Three

(…) With faces of torment as space burns them blue Their heads are transistors Their teeth grit on sand grains Their lost kids are squalling (…)

The third stanza of ‘Work and Play’ contrasts the swallow’s joyous flight with the ironic agony endured by humans for the sake of a summer holiday. Hughes personifies the swallow as “the seamstress of summer” to illustrate the gentle dexterity of their movements across the sky. The bird’s swift thoughtfulness evokes a lighthearted glee that, unsurprisingly, is lacking from the “holiday people.”

Hughes’ diction (“torment,” teeth grit,” “squalling”) accentuates the bizarre sight of people “laid out like wounded / Flat as in ovens / Roasting and basting,” questioning the wisdom in the decision to holiday at the mercy of a hot beach. All of nature is hostile to their presence: they’re tormented by the heat as “space burns them blue,” and “man-eating flies / [Jabbing] electric shock needles” into their skin.

Stanza Four

(…) The swallow of summer, cartwheeling through crimson, Touches the honey-slow river and turning Returns to the hand stretched from under the eaves – A boomerang of rejoicing shadow.

Answering the question that ended the previous one (“But what can they do?”) the fourth stanza of ‘Work and Play’ represents a major shift in the poem’s structure. It does not open with the swallow but the humans, envision “raw bodies, raw faces” climbing defeatedly back into their cars, at last abandoning their vacation.

As the serpent roars back to life for the return journey, the speaker offers intimate glimpses of their discontent (“squabbles, / And sobbing and stickiness / With sand in their crannies”) which has persisted for the duration of their holiday. The smell of petroleum that “pours from the foxgloves” foreshadows their return to an urban existence and its pollution.

Hughes ends the poem with one last reverential look at the swallow. The bird appears as agile, carefree, and stupendously happy as ever—finding more joy in its ceaseless toil than humanity ever could in its moments of vapid leisure.

The poet’s imagery puts on radiant display the dynamism of the swallow (“cartwheeling through crimson”) as it traces the “honey-slow river” (its languid movement an organic symbol of relaxation) before returning to the “rejoicing shadow” of its home.

Literary Devices

‘Work and Play’ contains examples of the following literary devices:

• Visual Imagery : Hughes envisions the swallow as a “blue-dark knot of glittering voltage” (2), an image that conveys the bird’s minute size and potential energy.
• Kinesthetic Imagery : “She flings from the furnace” (10) illustrates the velocity of the swallow as it darts through the hot summer air.
• Tactile Imagery : The core source of discomfort for the vacationing humans is their sense of touch, leaving them open to a “roasting and basting” (25) by the sun, or the “jab electric shock needles” (31) of insects.
• Olfactory Imagery : “Inhaling petroleum” (38) evokes the pungent smell of an automobile.
• Metaphor : “A whiplash swimmer, a fish of the air” (3) compares the swallow to another species entirely, imbuing its movements with an agile fluidity.
• Simile : “A scamper of colours / Which roll like tomatoes / Nude as tomatoes” (14-16) likens the people spilling from the cars to a naked vegetable, characterizing them as rotund, fleshy, and uncoordinated.
• Anthropomorphism : “The serpent of cars that crawls through the dust” (4) lends the caravan of vehicles an animal-like quality, transforming it into a snake slithering toward the ocean.

‘Work and Play’ compares and contrasts the sparrow with people on holiday to reveal ironic truths about humanity and our relationship with nature.

Nature’s sublime work ethic vs. Humanity’s slovenly leisure: The speaker of the poem praises the swallow for its diligent persistence and derides those on holiday. Hughes’ diction and imagery exult nature for delighting in its work but also because it doesn’t abide by anything other than instinct. In contrast, humanity has grown accustomed to its separation from nature and is beholden to the very forces that pollute the world they feel the need to escape from. Yet they’re greeted by an inevitable discomfort owed to their embattled relationship with nature. The sun burns them, insects feed on them, and they return worse off than they arrived. Here is the poem’s inherent irony : the swallow is happier when toiling away than humanity is while enduring one of its frustratingly brief, crowded, and miserable vacations.

You can read more themes and elements regarding the poem with the Poetry + Review Corner.

Poetry + Review Corner

20th century, relationships, frustration, man vs nature.

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Ward, Steven. "Work and Play by Ted Hughes". Poem Analysis , https://poemanalysis.com/ted-hughes/work-and-play/ . Accessed 7 September 2024.

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