Seamus Heaney's "Punishment"

I was impressed with Heaney's “Punishment” before our class discussion, but after Dr. Johnson showed us some of the facts related to the social unrest during Heaney's time, I appreciate the poem even more. One of Heaney's “bog poems,” “Punishment” tells the story not only of a woman who had been buried in the bog for hundreds of years and then exhumed, but also of women from Heaney's time. Yet, it's not just the story that makes this poem good, but also the way Heaney uses the poem to explore human tendencies, examine his own culpability in different social events, and make a call for change.

Use of the footnotes helps explain the way Heaney explores human tendencies throughout this poem. Beginning with a description of a young woman who has been murdered for adultery, Heaney (as the footnote explains) reminds us of ancient Germanic peoples. Yet, when he turns his attention to the mistreatment of the “betraying sisters,” women from his own time, Heaney connects the two time periods. Both sets of women, despite the hundreds of years that separate them, are treated brutally for acting outside of what society considers acceptable; therefore, the juxtaposition of these women displays Heaney's belief that humans have the tendency to judge others harshly regardless of the time period in which they live.

Indeed, Heaney does not exclude himself from an exploration of our tendency to be over judgmental and harsh. He realizes his own guilt in having “stood dumb” while Irish women are “cauled in tar” for having relations with British soldiers. Guilty of in-action, Heaney considers his own part in the human mania for judgment as he can mourn the loss of the ancient Germanic woman, but stand passively by as his own contemporaries “[weep] by the railings.”

Nevertheless, despite his momentary self-chastisement, Heaney does take action in the end by calling readers' attention to these terrible human tendencies. One way this is accomplished is through his reminder that even in our “civilized” age, mistreatment can occur. He sarcastically refers to the treatment of his contemporaries as “civilized outrage,” but then reminds readers that such a term is misleading and is actually nothing but “tribal, intimate revenge.” Therefore, by connecting the actions taking place around him to the brutalities of more tribal, instinctual times, Heaney shows that we cannot hide behind the guise of civilization, but must cease such actions before we could ever truly be humane, civilized people.

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.

Last Letter

I’m really intrigued by the relationship between Plath and Hughes. Apparently there was a poem entitled “Last Letter” that was initially one of the “The Birthday Letters” but was withheld from the original publication. It was published recently. I hope everyone will check out the link to some information on the poem. I really enjoyed the news clip that was on the bottom of the page. It talks about the relationship between the two and also contains excerpts of “Last Letter.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2010/10/long-lost-ted-hughes-poem-focuses-on-sylvia-plaths-suicide.html

Here is also a link to the full text poem.

http://lovingsylvia.tumblr.com/post/1263482483/last-letter-by-ted-hughes

I can absolutely see how many people would blame Hughes with his infidelities for the death of Plath. I do think it is hard to ignore, however, that obviously Hughes suffered tremendously from her death. The very fact that he wrote “The Birthday Letters” seems to suggest that he never fully recovered from the loss. This is definitely emphasized by “Last Letter.” The last few lines just gave me chills! “Then a voice like a selected weapon/Or a measured injection/Coolly delivered its four words/Deep into my ear: ’Your wife is dead.’” (see link above)

I was also really touched by how Hughes lamented the loss of Plath as his children’s mother (“Life after Death”). He is really ripped apart by the position that his son is put in after Plath’s death. He says, “Great hands of grief were wringing and wringing/ His wet cloth of face…But his mouth betrayed you – it accepted/The spoon in my disembodied hand.”

Ted Hughes

I was pretty sure that after we were done with Auden (who I didn't really enjoy at all) I would be able to enjoy poetry again. So when I read Ted Hughes, I was at first confused. I didn't really understand his poetry and it seemed to be all over the place; a mixture of word vomit, strewn all over the page. But after I continued reading, poem after poem, I started to appreciate this so-called word vomit. It turned into more of a melting pot of words. And then I could finally start to extricate some kind of meaning. (Even the poems that I still don't understand, I can now appreciate for their aesthetic value).

The Crow poems were probably my favorite. Hughes takes Crow and puts him into unusual situations. The first Crow poem I read was "Crow's First Lesson" and I was amused by this re-telling of the birth of Man and Woman. The more Crow poems I read, the more Crow became a character. I can see Crow as starting out as a children's character, but turning rogue, so that now his stories should only be read by adults. As we read more and more, we learn more about crow. For example, in "Crow's Theology," Crow realizes that he only exists because God loves him. "The Door," could be an explanation of where Crow comes from, "A black doorway:/ The eye's (earth's) pupil." "Crow's Fall" describes how Crow got to be black.

All of those little anecdotes about Crow help to build him as an actual character and I was kind of reminded a little of Aesop's fables. (of course, without a moral) But because these simple stories sounded kind of childlike, almost like the way mythology tries to explain, for example, where the sun goes at night (or something like that). I'm having trouble putting my finger on the correct terminology and phrasing for what I'm trying to relate Crow to, but that's the best I could come up with.

Ted Hughes

Over the readings, I really tried not to allow my feelings about Hughes' life with Plath get in the way. However, it is almost impossible not to refer to their relationship because Hughes makes references to Plath in some of his work. For instance, Hughes' "Red" gives numerous hints that it is about Plath. Hughes used red and blood imagery throughout the poem which Plath used a lot in her work. The poem also has a similar tone to that of Plath's poetry--death. Since a good deal of inspiration and emotions came out of Plath's death, regardless of their relationship prior, no one can really deny Hughes his right to express what he was feeling during that moment in time.

I feel as though the life of Hughes was just as big, if not, bigger than his poetry. It is important to separate the two but it is also important to understand the relationship between his work and his life because they truly intertwine. I have learned a lot more about Hughes' work and life in the past few weeks. By doing so I got a better understanding of Hughes and Plath's life together, as well as their work referring to each other. Before reading Hughes' work I thought of him only as Plath's moronic, womanizing ex-husband. Reading his poetry allowed me to realize that he is human, even though I still believe he is was a jerk. His poetry gave me better notification as to what his deeper feelings may have been throughout his life.

Thoughts on Ted Hughes

I like Ted Hughes' poetry, but I really don't know why. Like I said in class, I think it's simply because it's so different from all the other poetry we've read. Hughes really pushes the envelope with some of the things he touches on in his poetry, especially "Theology." It's great for a poem to be beautiful and moving, but sometimes I like to read stuff that really shakes things up, and Hughes' poetry is a great example of that.

I'd like to know more about his marriage to Sylvia Plath. This is the first time I've read Hughes' poetry, but I've read Plath's before and liked it as well--the marriage didn't work out, but the time they did spend together must have been quite interesting, to have these two extremely dark and offbeat souls bonded together in marriage!

Birthday letters Ted Hughes

life after death:
Ted Hughes Life after Death of the Birthday letters was one of the most powerful of the collection. Hughes describe the events and the emotion he went through with his children. like many loved ones of a suicide victims their life is torched and each one of them try to cope and move on from the horror. he begins with the words " what can i tell you that you do not know of life after death"
then goes on to describe his son cries and tears for his mother as he feeds him in his high chair. he also says how even though he is crying his mouth betrays you as he continue to cry and take the food. then he goes on describing the coms state of his daughter as he dresses her and the presence of her death continue to wound her. and later describes how the wolves mourn for them and visit them night after night..and they sing for two orphans as he states "where wolves singing in the forest for two babes, who have turned in their sleep into orphans besides the corps of their mother" which recalls the night she gassed her self while the children were sleeping and slept while their mothers corps was laying on the kitchen floor.