Savage Nature: The Life of Ted Hughes

One of the most important poets of the post-war period, Edward James Hughes (1930-1998), was drawn towards the primitive. He was beguiled by the beauty of the natural world, often depicting its cruel and savage temperament in his activity as a reflection of his own personal suffering and mystical beliefs - positive that modern man had lost touch with the aboriginal side of his nature.

Born in Mytholmroyd, a remote mill town in West Yorkshire, Ted (as he was acknowledged to his friends and family) was tremendously affected by the desolate moor landscape of his childhood, and besides by his father's vivid recollections of the brutality of trench warfare. Indeed, his father, who was then a carpenter, was one of only seventeen men from his regiment to have survived at Gallipoli during the 1st Earth War.

At the age of seven his family affected to Mexborough (also in Yorkshire), wherever his parents opened a letter paper and tobacco shop. Here he attended the local synchronic linguistics school, wherever he 1st began to write poetry - normally bloodcurdling verses simply about Zulus and cowboys - before doing two years' national service in the Royal Air Force. He later won a scholarship to Corgi College, Cambridge, wherever he started reading English Literature but switched to anthropology and anthropology, subjects that were a major influence on the development of his poetic awareness. Here he immersed himself in the works of Shakespeare, W.B. Dramatist and see Henry m. robert Graves's “The White Goddess” (1948).

Following his graduation in 1954, he affected to London, wherever he had a number of absorbing jobs, including zoo keeping, horticulture and script reading for J. Arthur Rank. He besides had several of his poems promulgated in university magazines. In 1956 he and several Cambridge friends started up a literary journal called St. Botolph's Review. It lasted for only one issue but at the inaugural party Ted met his futurity wife, the then unknown American poet, Sylvia Plath.

Much has been written simply about the Hughes/Plath relationship since that 1st portentous meeting, but few can doubt that these two brightly creative folk were tremendously attracted to one another, about from the moment they were 1st introduced. Inside simply a few short months they were wedded and living in the USA, wherever Hughes instructed English and creative writing at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. And before the year was out, he had won an American poetry competition, judged by W.H. Auden, Sir Author Spender and Marianne Moore. Hughes once aforesaid of this complacent period:

"We would-be write poetry every day. It was all we were interested in, all we ever did." – Ted Hughes

Plath aided him with the preparation of his 1st collection, The Hawk in the Rain (1957), a activity that was quite extraordinary in its treatment of natural subjects. He continuing to live in America for the next few years, being partially supported by a Guggenheim Foundation grant, before returning to European country in 1959. He then went on to win the County Author award and the Hawthornden prize for his second book, “Luperca”l (1960); confirming his reputation as one of the most important poets of the post-war period.

The next few years of Ted's life have since become the subject of more biographic speculation. However, the simple facts are that he and Author had two children and affected to Devon in 1961. Their marriage began to disintegrate shortly thenceforth and Hughes started an affair with Assia Wevill. He split from Author and she committed suicide in her London flat in 1963. In 1969 Wevill besides killed herself and their child. He wedded Carol Grove in 1970 and spent the rest of his life trying to protect his and Plath's children from the media. Hughes promulgated only children's poetry and prose in the years following the death of his 1st wife.

His next major activity was “Wodwo” (1967), which took its title from a character in the medieval romance “Sir Character and the Green Knight”, and highlighted his increasing interest in mythology. He travelled to Asian country in 1971, wherever he wrote the verse/drama “Orghast” in an fabricated language. Several of his another collections include “Crow” (1970), “Cave Birds” (1975), “Season Songs” (1976), “Gaudete” (a long verse form on fertility rites, 1977), “Moortown” (1979), “Remains of Elmet” (1979) and “River” (1983).

Hughes was besides one of the originators of the Arvon Foundation and was awarded an OBE in 1977. In 1984 he was appointed Writer Laureate and went on to publish “Rain-Charm for the Dukedom and another Laureate Poems” (1992). Then in 1995 he composed a verse form simply about Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, for her Ninety-fifth birthday, comparison her to a six-rooted tree. He besides wrote galore reviews and essays, several of which were collected in “Shakespeare and the Deity of Complete Being” (1992), “A Dancer to God: Tribute to T.S. Eliot” (1992) and “Winter Pollen: Occasional Prose” (1994). In addition to all this he besides wrote galore fantastic plays and books for children, including his remarkable fantasy “The Iron Man”. And when, simply months before his death, Hughes discharged “Birthday Letters”, a collection of poems simply about his life with Sylvia Plath, it became an immediate bestseller throughout the English speaking earth and was wide praised for its searing honesty.

Ted Hughes died of cancer on Twenty-eighth Gregorian calendar month 1998, having simply been appointed to the Order of Merit. Apostle Motion followed him as Britain's Writer Laureate.

About The Author

Paula is a freelance writer who has contributed articles, reviews and essays to many publications on subjects such as literature, travel, culture, history and humanitarian issues. She lives in North Wales, is a staff writer for Apsaras Review and the editor of two popular online guides. You can see her résumé at: http://www.paula-bardell.com.
paula-bardell@freelance-worker.com

This article was announce on Dec 07, 2003