Edward James Hughs
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Edward James Hughes is one of the most outstanding living British poets. In
1984 he was awarded the title of the nations Poet Laureate. He came into
prominence in the late fifties and early sixties, having earned a reputation of a
prolific, original and skillful poet, which he maintained to the present day. Hughes
was born in 1930 in Yorkshire england into a family of a carpenter. After graduating from Grammar School he went to Cambridge to study English, but later changed
to Archaeology and Anthropology. At Cambridge he met Sylvia Plath, whom he
married in 1956. His first collection of poems Hawk in the Rain was published in
1957. The same year he made his first records of reading of some Yeatss poems and
one of his own for BBC Third Program. Shortly afterwards, the couple went to
live in America and stayed there until 1959. His next collection of poems Lupercal
(1960) was followed by two books for children Meet My Folks (1961) and Earth
Owl (1963). Selected Poems, with Thom Gunn (a poet whose work is frequently
associated with Hughess as marking a new turn in English verse), was published in
1962. Then Hughes stopped writing almost completely for nearly three years
following Sylvia Plaths death in 1963 (the couple had separated earlier), but
thereafter he published prolifically, often in collaboration with photographers and
illustrators. The volumes of poetry that succeeded Selected Poems include Wodwo
(1967), Crow (1970), Season Songs (1974), Gaudete (1977), Cave Birds (1978),
Remains of Elmet (1979) and Moortown (1979). At first the recognition came from
overseas, as his Hawk in the Rain (1957) was selected New Yorks Poetry Book
Societys Autumn Choice and later the poet was awarded Nathaniel Hawthorns Prize
for Lupercal (1960). Soon he became well-known and admired in Britain. On 19
December 1984 Hughes became Poet Laureate, in succession to the late John
Betjeman. Hughes has written a great deal for the theatre, both for adults and
for children. He has also published many essays on his favourite poets and edited
selections from the work of Keith Douglas and Emily Dickinson (1968). Since
1965 he has been a co-editor of the magazine Modern Poetry in Translation in
London. He is still an active critic and poet, his new poems appearing almost weekly
Judging from bibliography, Hughes has received a lot of attention from
scholars and literary critics both in the USA and Britain. The few things I have learned from reading about Hughes could be outlined as follows. Some critics describe Hughes as ” a nearly demonic poet, possessed with the life of nature”, “a poet of violence” , his poetry being “anti-human” in its nature. According to Pat Rogers, his verse reflect the experience of human cruelty underlying the work of contemporary East European poets such as Pilinszky and Popa, both admired by Hughes. Hughes concern with religion gave inspiration to his construction of anti-Christian myth, which was mainly based on the famous British writer and critic Robert Ranke Graves book The White Goddess (1948) and partly on his own studies of anthropology. Speaking of his early poems, the critics note that at first
they were mistakenly viewed as a development of tradition of English animalistic
poetry started by Rudyard Kipling and D.H. Lawrence. G. Bauzyte stresses
that Hughes is not purely animalistic poet, since in his animalistic verse he seeks
parallels to human life. In I. Varnaites words, “nature is anthropomorphised
in his poems”. Furthermore, G. Bauzyte observes that Hughes poetics are
reminiscent of the Parnassians and in particular Leconte de Lisles animalistic
poems. She points out, however, that the latter were more concerned with colour,
exotic imagery and impression, while Hughes work is marked by deeper semantic
meaning. His poetical principals are fully displayed in the poem Thrushes –
“spontaneous, intuitive glorification of life, akin to a birds song or Mozarts music”.
The four main sources of Hughess inspiration mentioned are Yorkshire
landscape, where he grew up as a son of a carpenter. Totemism studied by the poet at
Cambridge and theories of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. The main themes,
as singled out by I. Varnaite, are: nature, the world of animals, man, the relationships
between man and nature. Hughes often defies traditional poetical cannons,
imploring stunning contrasts and surreal imagery. He was also noted for his language
and laconism of style. According to V. A. Skorodenko, Hughes uses contrasting
images, unexpected free associations and “sometimes vulgar words”. I. Varnaite
describes Crow and it sequels as “repetitive, sometimes too naturalistic and even
vulgar”. Like Hughess animals, man is also cruel and predatory already in his early
poetry. As I. Varnaite put it, to Hughes, “the most admirable beings are the most
ferocious and violent ones.” Similarly, the critic Edwin Muir points out