Customer Reviews

The Hawk in the Rain: Poems

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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.

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."