Customer Reviews

The Mermaid's Purse: poems by Ted Hughes

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Ted Hughes has the ability to make the natural world jump at you, alive, off the page. Nowhere is this more evident than in this wonderful cornucopia of sea poems beautifully illustrated by Flora Mcdonnell.

There is literally the zing of sea salt from the moment you open the book. For a person, like myself, who does not live by the sea, it is a tribute to Hughes' power that I felt a whole new world opening in my eyes . This apparent throughout the book, each poem delving deeper and deeper into the mystery of the ocean.

At no time does the book become sentimental. Hughes' characteristic truth when it comes to nature is apparent throughout the book. He treats his subjects with the respect they deserve and in doing so creates a whoolly entertaining yet realistic portrayal of the sea.

A favorite of mine which illustrates this is a short little poem concerning a mussel, in which Hughes likens it to a torn heart. By turns descriptive and playful, he turns it into a beautiful poem concerning a creature of the sea which would not usually garner such poetic attention.

This, as such, is the strength of the book. It has an unerring ability to make the ordinary into something exraordinay ensuring that a walk by the ocean (for children and adults alike) will never be the same again.