Collected Poems (Hardcover)

by Ted Hughes (Author), Paul Keegan (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The main details of Hughes's life are well-known: after his National Service with the RAF, the dashing poet marries the brilliant American Sylvia Plath in 1954, and becomes an instant celebrity with the publication of Hawk in the Rain in 1957. While "The Thought-Fox" scampers its way into numberless anthologies, he publishes the poems of Lupercal (1960) and Wodwo (1967), where he treats his own voice as a force of nature, threaded through a violent animism. His wife and his lover die by suicide. He makes a major artistic breakthrough with the widely praised sequence Crow (1971), which draws on his deep knowledge of English folklore, and sacrifices, for a kind of Zarathustrian bluntness, all lingering traces of formalism (though blank verse and ballad would continue to be favored methods). He writes plays and several children's books, and becomes poet laureate in 1984, publishing a surprisingly good book of civic verse, Rain Charm for the Duchy, in 1992. His final volume, Birthday Letters, is a conflicted, front-page-news-making account of his relationship with Plath. This enormous, rewarding compendium contains all of the above as well as numerous poems that were previously uncollected (such as the lovely, Williams-y miniature "Snail" and the long "Scapegoat and Rabies," an indictment of the soldier culture that partly shaped Hughes); the entirety of his acclaimed Tales from Ovid; Hughes's appendices to the books as originally published; and copious bibliographic notes. Hughes is already canonical in Great Britain, and this volume, with its resolutely undomesticated bestiary, will mark out permanent space on the shelves of U.S. readers.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Lauded as a poetic genius and demonized for the suicide of his poet wife, Sylvia Plath, Hughes remains a controversial and compelling figure, one deserving of the serious attention this mammoth first collected edition of his poems demands. Precocious and ambitious, Hughes began winning literary awards with his debut collection, The Hawk in the Rain (1957), thanks to Plath's encouragement. Earthy and mystical and steeped in folklore and myth, Hughes wrote lush and confident nature poems until Plath's death, after which his poetry turned spare and wary. In Crow (1970), for instance, images of fallen trees, shrunken forms, camouflage, sickness, and stasis abound, followed by the torment of Prometheus on His Crag (1973). But slowly the prolific and irrepressible Hughes regained his artistic grounding, and ultimately created a great treasury of original and exalted works, finally addressing his intense relationship with Plath in his final book, Birthday Letters (1998), a resounding collection that stunned the literary world. Supported with extensive notes, this definitive volume brings Hughes into crisp focus as a complex and major poet. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1376 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (November 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374125384
• ISBN-13: 978-0374125387
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #543,763 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bury the Hate, Celebrate the Greatness, December 2, 2003

By	David Scott Goen "dsgoen" (Ballwin, MO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ted Hughes has been reviled for over four decades for his part in the life and death of the poet Sylvia Plath. So strong is her mythology that many have relegated Hughes to a minor role, a bit player, in her epic tragedy. Plath was an astonishing and powerful poet. In the end she became one of the best poets of the twentieth century. So did her one-time husband.

Ted Hughes evidently had a great many faults both specifically as a man and more generally as a human being. This book has nothing to do with that, for either good or bad. Anyone familiar with the private lives of such artists as James Joyce and Picasso already know that artistic greatness does not guarantee moral greatness. We rightly celebrate their work.

This book collects the work of someone who touched greatness many times over a long and distinguished career. It includes not only the "official" editions originally published by Faber and Faber, but also work from literary journals and small-press editions. It is a volume from which Hughes work volcanically erupts, rather than develop in small increments.

"Crow" is one of the great cycle of poems in the English language. At last we can see other poems that both led to and came after this landmark work. Hughes revisited and revised throughout his career, and this volume does not cheat us of this growth. There are poems with the same content but possessing different names. There are poems with the same name but different contents. All have their place in the lexicon presented here.

Ted Huges was much more than "Mr. Plath." An accomplished poet, a skilled translator, a visionary, Ted Hughes' work transcends Ted Hughes. We must celebrate his work and let it take its place amongst the other great works of our times. Revisit what you may have already known of his poems. Discover the work that is new and glorious to you. And know that one may transcend personal limitations and achieve greatness.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ted Hughes...Poetical Perfection!..., March 10, 2005

By	Jay Dee - See all my reviews

Ted Hughes "Collected" should not be missed by anyone who loves poetry and wants a base of inexhaustible grist for their "mill".
Incredibly, some, including apparently a well meaning reviewer here for Amazon have come to see Ted Hughes as adjunct in importance to his one time wife, Sylvia Plath..."Mr. Plath"?! Please! For the poet in the know this is a laugher!...Sylvia was a bright shining star, but history will note that she could never eclipse her one time husband in either sphere or poetical influence...Hughes work in the realm of the meta-physical animal world around us, which Sylvia tried at times to dabble in is only equaled by poets like Jim Dickey, Don Hall, or Bob Frost.
The "Crow" cycle as has been mentioned elsewhere is incredible and mind blowing for those who stumble upon it for the first time...Hughes Crow work included completely here, reads like passages from a second Bible. You can see the timeless quality in this and all of Hughes work that will continue to influence poets down the road...
Don't miss his work on the "Jaguar" and even his juvenalia work is outstanding...
If you're a poet who wants wood for his fire, there isn't anything smaller here than heavy cedar. Go for your kindling elsewhere..This sterling collection of poems I highly recommend will cook up for you a bonfire of images and ideas that won't fail to keep you warm on a cold winter's night while they send a cool chill down your spine on a hot summer's day...

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, Amazing. Amazing., December 30, 2005

By	Randy Osten "Randy Osten" (Canada) - See all my reviews

Without a doubt the best thing I've read in half a year. A keeper, a gem, a wealth between covers. What a book. What a writer. His flow, rhythm, depth, lilt, phrasing are unequalled by any contemporary writer I know. He was a great, great writer and this book does justice to his memory.