Birthday Letters Poems

by Hughes, Ted

• ISBN13: 9780374525811
• ISBN10: 0374525811
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-03-30
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Summary

Formerly Poet Laureate to Queen Elizabeth II, the late Ted Hughes (1930-98) is recognized as one of the few contemporary poets whose work has mythic scope and power. And few episodes in postwar literature have the legendary stature of Hughes's romance with, and marriage to, the great American poet Sylvia Plath. The poems inBirthday Lettersare addressed (with just two exceptions) to Plath, and were written over a period of more than twenty-five years, the first a few years after her suicide in 1963. Some are love letters, others haunted recollections and ruminations. In them, Hughes recalls his and Plath's time together, drawing on the powerful imagery of his work--animal, vegetable, mythological--as well as on Plath's famous verse. Countless books have discussed the subject of this intense relationship from a necessary distance, but this volume--at last--offers us Hughes's own account. Moreover, it is a truly remarkable collection of pems in its own right.

Author Biography

Ted Hughes died in October 1998, having received acclaim in the last year of his life: the Whitbread Book of the Year Prize for Tales from Ovid, the Forward Prize for Birthday Letters, and the British Order of Merit. He was Poet Laureate to Queen Elizabeth II.

Table of Contents

Fulbright Scholars	p. 3
Caryatids (1)	p. 4
Caryatids (2)	p. 5
Visit	p. 7
Sam	p. 10
The Tender Place	p. 12
St. Botolph's	p. 14
The Shot	p. 16
Trophies	p. 18
18 Rugby Street	p. 20
The Machine	p. 25
God Help the Wolf after Whom the Dogs Do Not Bark	p. 26
Fidelity	p. 28
Fate Playing	p. 31
The Owl	p. 33
A Pink Wool Knitted Dress	p. 34
Your Paris	p. 36
You Hated Spain	p. 39
Moonwalk	p. 41
Drawing	p. 44
Fever	p. 46
55 Eltisley	p. 49
Chaucer	p. 51
Ouija	p. 53
The Earthenware Head	p. 57
Wuthering Heights	p. 59
The Chipmunk	p. 62
Horoscope	p. 64
Flounders	p. 65
The Blue Flannel Suit	p. 67
Child's Park	p. 69
9 Willow Street	p. 71
The Literary Life	p. 75
The Bird	p. 77
Astringency	p. 80
The Badlands	p. 82
Fishing Bridge	p. 87
The 59th Bear	p. 89
Grand Canyon	p. 96
Karlsbad Caverns	p. 99
Black Coat	p. 102
Portraits	p. 104
Stubbing Wharfe	p. 106
Remission	p. 109
Isis	p. 111
Epiphany	p. 113
The Gypsy	p. 116
A Dream	p. 118
The Minotaur	p. 120
The Pan	p. 121
Error	p. 122
The Lodger	p. 124
Daffodils	p. 127
The Afterbirth	p. 130
Setebos	p. 132
A Short Film	p. 134
The Rag Rug	p. 135
The Table	p. 138
Apprehensions	p. 140
Dream Life	p. 141
Perfect Light	p. 143
The Rabbit Catcher	p. 144
Suttee	p. 147
The Bee God	p. 150
Being Christlike	p. 153
The Beach	p. 154
Dreamers	p. 157
Fairy Tale	p. 159
The Blackbird	p. 162
Totem	p. 163
Robbing Myself	p. 165
Blood and Innocence	p. 168
Costly Speech	p. 170
The Inscription	p. 172
Night-Ride on Ariel	p. 174
Telos	p. 176
Brasilia	p. 178
The Cast	p. 179
The Ventriloquist	p. 181
Life after Death	p. 182
The Hands	p. 184
The Prism	p. 186
The God	p. 188
Freedom of Speech	p. 192
A Picture of Otto	p. 193
Fingers	p. 194
The Dogs Are Eating Your Mother	p. 195
Red	p. 197
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.