The Hawk in the Rain: Poems [Paperback]

Ted Hughes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1968

Originally published in 1957, Hawk in the Rain was the first collection of poems by Ted Hughes. The book won the New York Poetry Center First Publication Award, for which the judges were W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, and Marianne Moore; it also won the Somerset Maugham Award. Indeed, Hawk in the Rain was acclaimed by every reviewer from A. Alvarez to Edwin Muir, and in its pages we can still see the promising brilliance of one of the most important English-speaking poets of the modern age.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"All looking for the emergence of a major poet must buy [this book]." --Robin Skelton

About the Author

The British poet, translator, author, and critic Ted Hughes, born in 1930, wrote more than forty books, including, in the last decade of his life, Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being; Tales from Ovid; verse adaptations of Aeschylus's Oresteia, Racine's Phèdre, and Euripedes' Alcestis; and the bestselling Birthday Letters. Hughes served as Poet Laureate to Queen Elizabeth II from 1984 until his death in 1998.

Product Details

• Paperback: 60 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber (January 1, 1968)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571086144
• ISBN-13: 978-0571086146
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #688,093 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book, June 18, 2000

By 

JPH (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hawk in the Rain: Poems (Paperback)

This book should not be out of print. Besides his more recent translations (interpretations) of greek and latin texts and the recent collection "Birthday Letters," this may be Hughes' best work. It was his first volume published, and while volumes to follow, such as "Crow" and "Gaudette," descended into a fabricated landscape, this volume derives it's subject matter powerfully and beautifully from, primarily, the natural world. Hughes' renown as a depictor of the natural world is made evident as deserved here more than any other volume he produced. As the first publised work of a masterful and recently deceased poet, this work should still be in print. Find it if you can.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nature Red in Tooth and Claw, March 27, 2008

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Hawk in the Rain: Poems (Paperback)

This is Hughes' first collection and with it he made his reputation as a strong observer of nature. His verse is vibrant with observation of the fierce animal- rich world. His focus is away from the human and certainly away from personal relationships. His language is richly metaphoric and original. There is a toughness in his voice and a lurking sense of violence everywhere. At times he seems to enter the skin of the animals he writes about and feel and see the world as they do.
He writes of 'The Thought- Fox' and 'The Jaguar' and 'The Horses'.
I recognize the value of his work and his originality but it is fundamentally not congenial to my interests or my soul.

Here is the opening stanza of his poem 'The Jaguar'

"The apes yawn and adore their fleas in the sun.
The parrots shriek as if they were on fire, or strut
Like cheap tarts to attract the stroller with the nut.
Fatigued with indolence, tiger and lion..."

And its concluding stanza.

"More than to the visionary his cell:
His stride is wildernesses of freedom
The world rolls under the long thrust of his heel.
Over the cage floor the horizons come."