Ted Hughes: From Cambridge to Collected

by Wormald, Mark; Roberts, Neil; Gifford, Terry

• ISBN13: 9781137276575
• ISBN10: 1137276576
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-09-09
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Ted Hughes is one of the major twentieth-century English poets. Including a previously unpublished poem written by Ted Hughes, Ted Hughes: From Cambridge to Collected offers new insights into neglected but essential aspects of his work. New essays by his friends and fellow poets Seamus Heaney and Simon Armitage lead a collection of largely new voices in Hughes studies offering fresh readings and newly available archive research. Beyond the poetry and stories, these contributors draw upon recordings, notebooks, letters, writing for children, prose essays and translations. Several contributors have conducted new interviews and correspondence for this book. For the first time, this book challenges established views about Hughes's speaking voice, poetic rhythms, study at Cambridge, influence of other poets, engagement with Christianity, farming, fishing and healing. Close readings of popular texts are accompanied by new arguments and contexts that show the importance of works hitherto overlooked.

Author Biography

TERRY GIFFORD is a Visiting Professor in the Centre for Writing and Environment at Bath Spa University, UK

NEIL ROBERTS is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Sheffield, UK

MARK WORMALD is Director of Studies in English at Pembroke College, Cambridge, UK

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Notes on the Contributors
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Ascent of Ted Hughes: Conquering the Calder Valley; Simon Armitage
2. Hughes and Cambridge; Neil Roberts
3. Mythology, Mortality and Memorialisation: Animal and Human Endurance in Hughes' Poetry; Laura Webb
4. Hughes's Inner Music; David Sergeant
5. Knowing the Bible Right Down to the Bone: Ted Hughes and Christianity; David Troupes
6. Hughes's Vacanas: The Difficulties of a Bridegroom; Ann Skea
7. 'The Fox is a jolly farmer and we farm the same land': Ted Hughes and Farming; David Whitley
8. Fishing for Ted; Mark Wormald
9. Traumatic Repetition in Capriccio; Lynda Bundtzen
10. Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes: A Complex Friendship; Henry Hart
11. 'I fear a man of frugal speech': Hughes and Emily Dickinson; Gillian Groswezski
12. Ted Hughes and Federico García Lorca: the Tragic Theatre of Mourning; Yvonne Reddick
13. Hughes: Illness; Edward Hadley
14. 'The Ted Hughesness of Ted Hughes': The Construction of a 'voice' in Hughes's Poetry Readings and Recordings; Carrie Smith
15. Suffering and Decision; Seamus Heaney
Bibliography
Index