Ted Hughes

I am not a huge fan of Ted Hughes’s poetry. I am more interested in his personal life. It is difficult to imagine that both of his wives killed themselves in the same way. What did he do to these women that made them commit suicide? I would think that he might have thought he had something to do with their deaths and perhaps felt like a failure. Someone had mentioned in class that Hughes could be the crow. I think this is a great analysis. In “Crow’s First Lesson,” crow is a failure. He was unable to please God no matter how hard he tried. Perhaps this was Hughes’s way to express his own feelings of disappointment.

Crows are not seen in a positive light. Crows are usually associated with bad omens, problems, and death. I cannot find one positive poem dealing with Crow. I was surprised that Hughes was initially writing Crow as a children’s book. I would never associate Crow with children. Everything Hughes writes is depressing. The Birthday Letters were shocking to me. I thought they would be uplifting, but I should have known they wouldn’t be after reading Crow. “The Dogs Are Eating You Mother” is bizarre. The title itself is disturbing. He talks about her body being destroyed by vultures. He just seems very angry in the poem. He has the same negative attitude throughout all his poetry. I can’t say that I enjoy reading such disturbing poetry.