The Cohesive Use of Animal Imagery in the Poems of Ted

Hughes - A Study
Anupama
Shekhawat
Edward James Hughes (17 August 1930 - 28 October 1998), popularly known as
Ted Hughes, was the youngest child of William Henry Hughes and Edith Farrar
Hughes. He was an English poet and a British Poet Laureate from 1984 until his
death on 28 October 1998. Hughes was a multitalented poet and he is best
acknowledged for creating influential poems that feature bold metaphors,
echoing language, imagery, and speech rhythms. Hughes's poetry, according to
Seamus Heaney reflects these traits along with, "racial memory, animal instinct
and poetic imagination all flow into one another with an exact sensuousness."
Hughes's poetry signals a spectacular departure from the prevailing modes of
the period. Unlike R.S. Thomas & Tom Gunn who preferred to write on the bleak
beauty of the British Landscapes Ted Hughes preferred to differ by choosing to
focus his poetic works to root in nature and, in particular, the innocent
coarseness of animals.
Ted Hughes has composed over fusion of elegance and fervor in the natural
world. Animals in the poems of Hughes are metaphor for his views on life. The
animals whom Ted Hughes captures in his poems reflect the conflict between
violence and tenderness the manner in which humans strive for ascendancy
and success. The diction of his poems matches the animals that he is picturing
in the Modern poet: Essays ƒrom "The Review," Colin Falck says that Hughes's
poetic language has Shakespearean resonance to explore themes which were
natural and ferocious speaking about the innocent savagery of animals. His
works reflect beauty and violence in the natural world. Animals serve as a
metaphor for his view on life. His poems show that animals struggle out for the
survival of the fittest in the same way that humans strive for ascendancy and
success.
To relate Ted Hughes Captures animal to express his thoughts I have taken
the following poetry for my study: Hawk Roosting, this expresses the royal
nature of animals who consider themselves superior over animals, Lupercal,
sealed Hughes' including as a major poet and includes many of his most
popular evocations of animals, including the Archive-featured Pike the poem
with malicious grin, Thought ƒox, Crow poems, the Hawk in the Rain, Moortown
Diary. The Animal imagery equipped in these poems show that Hughes was
one of the greatest poets of the natural world. In the above mentioned
remarkable collection of poems he gives voice to some of the animals around
us. The animal characters that he creates are distinct like Fox, Horses amusing
like the animals of Moortown Diary, Kingly like Hawk and ferocious like Pike.
The marvelous lightness of the poems endears these animals to curious readers
who are inquisitive about them. Apart from the above mentioned ones Ted
Hughes has written 28 whimsical, lyrical and robust animal poems the animals
of these poems include: The mole, the cat, the squirrel, the donkey, and many
others.
For the purpose of elaborate discussion I will take these poems one by one. I
propose to begin with Hawk Roosting. The poem written in fist person as a
dramatic monologue creates a comparison in the readers mind, between the
hawk and an egoistic dictator. In this poem Ted Hughes portrays the thought
process that goes in the mind of the Hawk and relates it with the mind of every
megalomaniac who considers other people around him as of no or little
importance. The poem reverberates with despotic phrases and turns of
expression. The hawk lives according to the rules designed by him and "No
arguments assert" his "right." This poem shows that this is a world where might
is right. The Hawk says in violent chillingly insightful manner, 'I kill where I
please because it is all mine'. The massive egotism running through the poem
is, again, telling in its implications for the human world. Yet the unstated theme
lying underneath the hawk's soliloquy is this, that the hawk is a creation of
Nature; its personality is framed and dictated by Nature. This Hawk is shown as
a tyrant who does not listen to the people around. This has allegorical
significance in reference to human beings that unrestrained power in human
beings when twisted and deformed, leads only to tyranny and oppression. Hawk
Roosting of Ted Hughes has similarity with imperial majesty of Tennyson's
Eagle (1851). Ekbert Faas quotes Hughes who once said to him in an interview
that poetry is "an exploration of the genuine self" is one way to "unlock the
doors of those many mansions inside the head and express something-of the
information that presses in on us". (82) Many scholars, such as Ben Howard,
suggest that Hughes "has often seemed the celebrant, if not the proponent of
violence and destruction" (253). This poem signifies self- assertion the following
lines reveal it at fullest:
Now I hold Creation in my foot
Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly
I kill where I please because it is all mine.
"I", in the poem a sign of the Supreme Ego of the hawk as he sits on top of the
'wood' that stands for his kingdom. His world is limited between his hooked
head and hooked feet. For action does not define him, rather, he defines action.
This is no falsifying dream, a castle built in the air, but the universal truth. He
dreams about "in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat." Therefore, it is not the
basic necessity of killing and eating that concerns him, but the style of it. Thus
the hawk transforms into a metaphor of Supreme arrogance of Man where he is
haunted by power. The trees are also symbol height or achievements, enabling
him to reach new heights. The air's buoyancy enables him to float in the air, the
suns rays lend him hope. These metaphoric description shows that even
circumstances support him. He as sits over the tree it appears to him as if the
earth is laid down for his inspection.
My feet are locked upon the rough bark. It took the whole of Creation
To produce my foot, my each feather:
Now I hold Creation in my foot.
Creation here refers to God (as the word is capitalized) and by his flying up he
can revolve around Creation. The line is an example of a metaphysical conceit.
Hawk asserts triumphantly:" I kill where I please because it is all mine." Critics
like Carol Bere, Colin Falck, and Christopher Porterfield etc point out that these
lines reflect Fascism. Hawk's way of life pertains to the tearing off all heads;
suggesting that he is above all moral and social laws. He decides the allotment
of death. The path of his flight through the bones of the living is direct; there
are no two ways about it. On an ending note, he declares that the sun is behind
him. He has eclipsed the sun. To put it further, the sun lives in his shadow. The
composition of the entire universe is susceptible to change within fractions of
seconds. Nothing is constant, as times passes. However, the Hawk states that
nothing has changed here, as his eye has not permitted it to. The word eye
denotes both 'vision' and "insight". The last line functions as an open challenge
to the universal fact that change is inevitable:
"I am going to keep things like this."
In this poem the hawk is the I-narrator who identifies with images of earth and
water, thus emphasizes about his emotional connection to the world. The hawk
here apparently defies natural laws, yet finally succumbs to them. Hughes
symbolizes the hawk as culture and nature, both the head and the heart of
nature. The following lines reveals image of an imprisoned force:
He spins from the bars, but there's no cage to him More than to the visionary
his cell:
His stride is wildernesses of freedom:
The Hawk in the Rain is an example of use of small poetic charms which contain
powerful animal energies. In an interview with Faas Hughes says that this
poem is written "in an effort to create an absolutely still language,” to
express these small, “self-contained symbolic creatures who are so much full
of energy." In this poem the poet expresses his feelings as he sees the Hawk.
"Bloodily grabbed dazed last-moment-counting Morsel in the earth's mouth,
strain to the master Fulcrum of violence where the hawk hangs still"
The harsh rhythms and diction, is influenced by Anglo-Saxon style, its vivid,
grandiose imagery established reputation of Ted Hughes as a poet of
international importance. In this collection Hughes has used those themes
which his contemporary movement poets thought should be repressed. He
has used the primitive energy and the power of the unconscious which the
Movement poets never used. This collection includes the title poem; ‘The
Hawk in the Rain’ this poem has a ‘language that draws attention to itself. In
this poem there is a thin line drawn over an image of an imprisoned force, and
the inhibited violence of it, summarizes everything that is great about
Hughes. Here the Hawk shown is not wild and ferocious as the Hawk of Hawk
Roosting. This can be compared to Wind Hover (1860) by GM Hopkins. ‘The
Thought-Fox’ is another important animal allegory poem of this collection.

The poem The Thought-Fox’ is about journey of writing a poem. This all
happens in the room of the poet where the poet is sitting trying to compose a
poem. At this moment the poet senses presence of an animal probably a fox,
though the body of this animal is invisible, but it walks its way forward
nervously through the dark this disturbs the poet:

Through the window I see no star; Something more near

Though deeper within darkness Is entering the loneliness.

The fox that is seen hidden in these lines is covered with snow because of the
snow the fox’s nose had become cold and damp, twitching moistly and gently.
Fox is breathing with this wet nose anxiously in the darkness. Here the poet
uses simile, and withholds the subject with such clarity so that the fox emerges
slowly out of the shapelessness of the snow. In the beginning of the poem the
figure of Fox is not clearly visible however with the help of phrases like ‘lame
shadow’ poet is able to evoke a more precise image of the fox. There are
certain action phrases in the poem that explain peculiar movements of the fox
such as holding one front-paw in mid-air, and then moves off again like a
limping animal. Some of the words are intentionally left incomplete to show
pausing moment of fox at the outer edge of some trees. The gap between the
stanzas indicates effectively the manner in which the fox, after hesitating warily
shoots across:

‘Of a body that is bold to come/across clearings…’

In the last stanza of the poem the poet is seen very tensed and worried. Though
by this stanza the poem is about to be fully composed yet at the same time it
expresses an almost predatory thrill; it is as though the fox has successfully
been lured into a hunter’s trap. The final line-‘the page is printed’-explains
the defenseless death of the ‘thought- fox’. Towards the end of the poem,
the fox is completely and immediately alive; this is because it has been pinned
so artfully upon the page. And the moment any reader reads the poem the fox
is alive and walks in the head of the readers. Richard Webster says that in the
poem there is an impulse which underlies throughout it is an urge towards
which Hughes has himself drawn attention by repeatedly comparing the act of
poetic creation to the process of capturing or killing small animals. According to
the critic in the last stanza poet is seen as playing a kind of imaginative game
in which he attempts to outstare the fox looking straight into its eyes as it
comes closer and closer and refusing to move, refusing to recoil. Similarly
even the fox itself does not shy away or deviate from its course. It is almost as
though, in doing this fox has successfully proved that though it was initially
nervous, circumspect, and as soft and delicate as the dark snow, it is not
'feminine' after all but tough, manly and sturdy willed and brilliant, that its
presence can be accepted by the poet without anxiety.

The beautiful 'final' nature of the poem allegorically indicates that poets are not
in the presence of any untrained spontaneity, any primitive or naïve vision. It
might be suggested that the sensibility behind Hughes’s poem is intellectual,
his poems are sort of rebellion against his own ascetic rationalism that is the
reason he feels which drives him to hunt down and capture an element for his
own sensual and intuitive identity which he does not securely possess. The
conflict of sensibility which Hughes unconsciously dramatizes in ‘The Thought-
Fox’ runs through all his poetry.

Towards the end of the poem the Fox is not described as unshaped being but as
a creature attracted out of the darkness into full consciousness. Unlike earlier it
is no longer anxious and vulnerable, but at home in the lair of the head, safe
from extinction, perfectly, it’s being caught forever on the page. This entire
creation of the fox has allegorical significance. It can be understood in this
manner that the fox is the poem, and the poem is the fox however it does
not have the liberty of a wild animal. It cannot get up from the page and walk
off to hold its young cubs unnoticed by the poet neither it can die in mortal,
animal, style. P.

R. King in Nine Contemporary Poets: A Critical Introduction, remarks that

Hughes's emphasis on wild creatures and his concern for them is a clue to the
importance the poet reserves of what animals symbolize in his work” it also
reflect that animals are superior to man in dominance of their rational self.

The publication of Lupercal (1960) won a Somerset Maugham Award in year

1960 and Hawthornden Prize the 1961. This sealed Hughes’ reputation as a
major poet. This Collection includes many of his most popular representations
of animals including the Dangerous ‘Pike’. The poem is explained by the
hunting analogy the all time favorite of Hughes with this style Hughes explains
his own creative process with patient concentration.

In the poem Pike Hughes explains and introduces the superficial dimensions of
the pike. He begins the poem by describing different types of Pike fishes: The
poet descries the perfection of the Pike in the first stanza. The pike appears to
be in measured dimension: “three inches long. The whole body of the pike has
green and yellow stripes across it which appears like its identifying marks,
“green tigering gold”; its habitat, “In ponds” under the heat-struck lily pads”
The life of the pike is defined by this physical design; it is "subdued to its
instrument." Pike has the killer-instinct that exists right from the hatching of the
egg. In this manner Hughes transforms our acquaintance with the pike solely
from a material, scientific perspective. According to the poet this violent nature
of Pike is hereditary: “the malevolent aged grin.” That they have can be traced
to previous generation. They stage a dance on the surface attracting the flies,
asserting their presence. Hughes has always utilized animals as an exaggerated
metaphor for the instinctual inclination of Man.

Later the poet leads the readers closer to the pike by focusing on specific fish.
The poet speaks of three pike he “kept behind glass” from the time they were
in their first stage of being “three inches” long. Eventually, the confined
violence of these captive pike turns inward and feeds on itself, three pike
quickly become one “with a sag belly and the grin it was born with.” Our view
of the pike and its violence advances from a theoretical, external examination
to a closer, more intimate observation. The fish-bowl that keeps Pike behind
glass is a symbolic partition that effectively hurdles the interference of humans
in the natural world. To prevent the reader from mistakenly assuming that the
violence demonstrated by the pike “behind glass” was a result of their
captivity, Hughes describes the same savagery manifested in the pond. In the
pond there was a fight going on between pikes “One jammed past its gills down
the other’s gullet” this line shows the self-destructive dimension of violence.
As one looks from above the waters, their shadow appears magnified and the
length is pronounced “a hundred feet long in their world.” This signifies the
splendor of the pike. These fishes move glorified by their grandeur, the alga of
pond appears as a bed of emerald for them. In the ponds, they are found also
below the heat of the lily pads. They can be discovered in the shadow of the
flower’s stillness. Either they are attached as logs to last year’s leaves or
appear to hang in a cavern of weeds. The specific description of jaws is
noteworthy. The poet writes that jaws are perfectly formed ‘clamped’ to easily
prey upon their victims. These jaws are regarded as preying instruments.
Similarly their kneading of the gills and the pectorals involuntarily performs
their respective functions. The poet also gives details about the revengeful
nature of pike that is allegorically referred with some persons who cannot
tolerate the competition and believe in demising off the competitor. The truth is
that they spare nobody, even their own kind as the poet talks of two pikes “Six
pounds each, over two feet long” They are dead in the willows as one gets
choked while swallowing up the other. One jammed past its gills down the
other’s gullet. The part of the pike, being eaten, projected its eye as the film of
the fish shrank in death, with the same firmness that was characteristic of the
species.

In order to come in closer contact with the pike and appreciate the ultimate
dimension of the violence it symbolizes, Hughes intensifies the degree of our
involvement through the act of fishing. Symbolically, a line connects the world
of light to the world of darkness. According to K. Sagar this feeble connection is
necessary to understand the pike because one cannot apprehend the essential
nature of the pike’s violence while firmly rooted on land. Pike’s great size
highlights their mythic quality, and their immensity renders them motionless
this is in great contrast to the furious violence they shown in earlier lines of the
poem killing each other. In the Final Stanza the poets tells us that they are “so
immense and old/that past nightfall I dared not cast”. Still he goes with “hair
frozen” on his head at this point, with this expression Hughes begins to dissolve
the distinction between the fisherman and the fish.

This poem symbolizes violence according to Hughes it has lucid and sublime
violence that cannot be studied or observed “behind glass. The final terror of
the pike is evident when “malevolent aged grin” of the pike is noticed. In the
Introduction of “Pike” Hughes regards it to be “one of my prize catches.” He
remembers the large pond where he went for fishing and which is referred
here. The pond that the poet fished in had lilies and fishes that fore grounded
the scene mentioned in the poem. The depth of the pond mentioned in the
poem is itself ‘legendary’ as it is illustrative of the deep-rooted heritage that
England is synonymous with. The depth of pond mentioned in the poem is
‘stilled’ or static not meant to change with ravages of time. The Pike has
allegorical significance as an inherent part of man’s basic nature as this violent
streak is universal. The human-being also has this killer/survival instinct right
after his birth. This instinct is inborn, but the sophistication that he develops is
acquired. Nevertheless, this aggressive behavior remains in the subconscious.
This killer instinct is a metaphor for the revolutionary instinct of England.In the
last line the poet is shown as silently engaged in fishing. Here, fishing stands as
a metaphor of ‘self-discovery.’ The hair that had grown after his birth was a
symbol of his sophistication; as he probed his roots, it had frozen. In the
darkness of the night, the poet 'fished' for the slightest sign of instinct– “for
what might move, what eye might move.” In contrast, to the deeper
attentiveness of the poet, the splashes seemed prominent in the tranquil night.
The nocturnal owls seemed to be hushing up the floating woods that appeared
to be floating to the poet in his partial dream. According to P. R. King “beneath
the night’s darkness another shade was revealed” and “that of the poet’s inner
conscious” that “rose slowly towards me, watching.” This was the poet’s other
self that he encountered-his darker side.

The poem, The Jaguar' written by Ted Hughes, is one of his most famous
poems. This poem describes the different types of lifestyles of animals at a zoo
and expresses how the animals who roar and bleat in cages feel being trapped.
This poem also compares and contrasts certain animals in the zoo with each
other. It shows the slow, lazy movements from some of the animals to the fast,
rapid movement of some. Then the poet introduces the hero of the poem the
Jaguar. In ‘The Jaguar’, Ted Hughes uses techniques such as tone, metaphors,
and similes to portray the activities of the animals at the zoo.When the poem is
comparing the laziness of the animals with the energetic Jaguar, he says that
these animals are so lazy that they are “fatigued with indolence.” Apart from
this these animals are very bored; they are exhausted by the boredom and
outrageous surrounding. Every single day the animals are put on show for
people to come and see them, but they just get tired of doing nothing but
sleeping or sitting or moving from one end to the other of the iron cage. Most of
the time, these animals in the zoo sleep and pay no attention to the visitors
looking in on them. As some visitors gather before the cage of parrot, they
“strut like cheap tarts.” Hughes describes that birds in the cages pace back in
forth in order to get the visitors attention most likely for some sort of food. As
the guests move from one cage to another they are tired until they reach the
jaguar's cage, in which they see the fierce behavior. These visitors see that the
Jaguar is not at all involved in “petty tricks” to win the attention of the visitors
he has the attitude as if he were a wild beast found in the jungle. Although the
jaguar is caged up, he maintains his kingly sublime. Here Hughes introduces
the fact that even the beasts have emotions subdued down this is expressed
when the poet explains that “Jaguar’s heart still remains where he calls home.”
Ted Hughes has a brilliant way of looking into life. He expresses human follies,
anger, and hatred through the animal kingdom. His themes are explored by
means of image, myth and symbol all associated with animal world. The Jaguar
is a poem about a fierce animal from the image of which Ted Hughes unearths
something about human nature. On the surface, the poem is an animal poem
which reminds of the wrath and violence of the Jaguar. It is a symbolic poem
about any individual who is firm, fierce yet soft at heart in his imagination and
strides along the path of the world. He may be caged objectively but
subjectively he is liberated and free. His power to exceed the hostile situation
as well as the chalk circle drawn around him by restriction could never be
circumscribed. In Ted Hughes poem The Jaguar, the Jaguar stands for all the
visionaries of the world who have kept alive the desire for freedom in every
other man for ages. Christopher Porterfield observed, that” Hughes in his poem
Jaguar express the internalized violence with more imaginative power than
any other modern poet, it is perhaps because he does so from within a poetic
sensibility which is itself profoundly intellectual, and deeply marked by
puritanical rationalism which he so frequently attacks.

The origin of Crow is well documented Hughes writes an article to explain the
Creation of Crow. According to the poet Crow grew out of an invitation by
Leonard Baskin to make a book which speaks all about crow in a folklore
manner. It does not contain any of the various fragments of explanatory
commentary added. As the protagonist of a book, crow becomes symbol and
leads a legendary life. This collection includes sequence of poems within a
framework which looks like folk- mythology. Ted Hughes hides beneath the
figure of Crow, and continues his journey of exploration into the human psyche
and, handles the themes of the death/rebirth theme in his poetry. According to
the poet the entire sequence of Crow Poems deal with a quest, a journey to the
underworld and this is the basic theme of many folktales, myths and narratives.
The Poem begins with the God having an argument with his own Nightmare.
The Nightmare accuses God about the adequacy of man as a creation. However
God does not agree with it and is very defensive of man. According to Him man
is a very good and successful Invention and in given materials and situation in
which he is created he’s quite adequate and his performance is satisfactory.
At this time a representative of Man comes to meet God and requests God to
take back life because they have become very tired of their lives. This makes
the God angry and He vows that with similar materials and situation from which
he has created man he will create better being than man this is how Crow was
created. When he first appears in front of God he looks like.

“Wretched, black, horrible, little nothing”

Later in the poem Hughes is imagines that he is a prince who wants to go on

journey of exploration. This journey will lead him towards unfolding may
mysteries associated with Human Life. For this Journey he needs a vehicle
which is equally rational like him and finally decides to go on crow. Hughes
gives reason for his choice of Crow he says that he has done for allegorical
significance. Crow has many characteristics in common with Man. It is common
figure in many mythologies apart from being interfering, a moral, destructive
he is at times constructive personality. This crow of Hughes, laughs, sings and
eats, and displays his supreme egotism by “Flying the black flag of himself”
(Crow Blacker than Ever; C.p. 69) According to Caroline the entire character of
crow reflects the havoc and horror which has created him. According to
Caroline and Sagar “Crow is Everyman who will not acknowledge that hates and
fears everything within and around him”. Later Crow starts interfering in the
works of God. In ‘A Childish Prank” God, Hughes explained in his story that at
first was “rather indulgent” towards Crow. God shares his creation story of
Adam and Eve with crow. “He tends to show it the beautiful aspect associated
with creation of man.” God wants lost happiness and enthusiasm back in life
of man. Crow: From the Liƒe and Songs oƒ the Crow ends with Hughes
invocation to the creative/destructive energies of nature which has helped him
with creation of Crow to: “Sit on my finger, sing in my ear, O little blood”. In
this manner he returns to the theme of the quest and of spiritual rebirth.

The Crow poems deal with brutal violence though Hughes never supports
violence but believes that it is a kind of necessary psychological amour to ward
off anxiety. Richard Barrister says that Crow poems, are Hughes’s most
extraordinary poetic achievement. According to him in this collection, the poet
assumes imaginative responsibility for the puritanical violence which is present
in his poetry since the very beginning; the critic feels that in this Collection he
deems to take full possession of his poetic powers. G.I James says that it these
poems, the readers are made to view a shadowy and underworld existence,
which is full of not only violence but also all that imaginative wealth and vitality
one could think of.

The poem Second Glance at a Jaguar is from collection of poems called Wodwo
(1967). In this poem Hughes embodies Jaguar’s restlessness and passion, this
effect is achieved by loading the lines with verbs to express like “shoving,”
“lifting,” “hanging,” “combing,” “hurrying.” The poem explores every aspect of
Jaguar’s physicality such as in and out of the hip joint, under the spine, in the
socket of the hind legs, the back teeth, and the blackness of the mouth, fangs,
bottom jaw, and club- tail.

The poem shows that it is only through an exploration of the physical aspect
one can deduce about Jaguar’s nature, the minute details enables the readers
to understand the animal with deep intensity. The Poet uses swift diction that
explains the noble aggression of the jaguar and describes its movements such
as grinding, spining, swiping, striding, club-swinging, coiling and flourishing.
The jaguar’s violence is compared with the gangsters, and his overwhelming,
unstoppable energy is compared with the relentless drive of the body’s engine,
‘lifting the air up and shoving on under’, muttering ‘some drum song of
murder’. Jamie McKendrick says that various images in this poem are unified by
references to roundness such as the ‘skinful of bowls’, the stump-legged
waddle that is ‘trying to grind some square/Socket between his hind legs
round’. The entire poem focuses on Jaguar’s internal geometry; it presents
‘urgency of his hurry’, as the jaguar practices at refining his movements
towards a perfect though imaginary kill.

Moortown Diary (1989) is a group of thirty-four poems these poems record

Hughes’s experiences at his Devonshire farm; this collection of poems is
dedicated to the memory of his late father-in-law, Jack Orchard. The poems
here are filled with images of sheep and births of lambs and calves, the poems
reveal Hughes as a tender observer of nature. Moortown Diary, in the words of
its Introduction it, “more or less excludes the poetic process”-or at any rate it
changes that process from one of recollection and reshaping to something
more like documentary,” It appears not like poetic compositions but like the
quick jottings of a journalist. This writing trend was popular in 70s wherein by
writing quickly and without corrections poets were able to avoid the falsifying
input of the intellect.

However the critics say that gentleness of animals reflected here is not so meek
and polite but beneath these poems brutal descriptions of the harsh realities of
farm life can also be seen for instance Hughes describes a newborn lamb and
its mother lying on the ground “face to face like two mortally wounded
duelists.” Joseph Parisi noted that Hughes has in depth knowledge of the
animals which is seen here. In Chicago Tribune Book World he writes that these
poems show Hughes “at the height of his powers,” McPherson explained that
the strength to the diction comes from Hughes’s respect for and intimate
knowledge of his subject matter. The critic says that the poems of Hughes
which grow from close contact with their subject have the real healing effect
and are as vigorous as if are written today.” In a Los Angeles Times Book
Review critique oƒ Moortown, Peter Clothier note, “The weight and power of the
book come in the title sequence.” Christopher Ricks in New York Time Book
Review stated, “Moortown’ strikes me as one of (Hughes’s) truest achievements
in a very long time.”

Hughes has written one more Poem with the name Moortown but it cannot be
confused with Moortown Diary. Moortown (1979) is composed of four sequences
of poems which was singled out for acclaim by critics, recounts in diary form
Hughes’s experiences as a dairy farmer deeply engaged in the birth and death
cycles of animals. River (1983) offer vivid descriptions of animal life and nature
and generally project a more positive view of humanity than Hughes’s previous
works. The poems in River follow a series of rivers through the course of a year,
describing their sundry landscapes and animal life. These volumes reveal
Hughes’s finest qualities as a poet and his ability to evoke the natural world in
rich, sensuous detail and his unsentimental yet respectful view of life.

To read Hughes’s poetry is to enter a world dominated by nature especially by

animals. This holds true for nearly all of his books, from The Hawk in the Rain to
Moortown, an examination of life on a farm.

Speaking about Ted Hughes use of animal for allegorical significance London
Times contributor Thomas Nye, said “Hughes once confessed” that “he began
writing poems in adolescence, yet had love for wild animals and always wanted
to possess one.” He wanted to capture not just live animals, but the aliveness
of animals in their natural state: Their wildness, their humidity, the fox-ness of
the fox and the crow-ness of the crow.” Hughes’s apparent obsession with
animals and nature in his poetry has incurred the disapproval of some critics.
Tony Shaw saw Hughes's concentration on animals as his attempt to clarify his
feelings on the human condition. Hughes, in his poems examines the isolated
and insecure position of man in nature and his chances of overcoming his
alienation from the world around him. In pursuit of these interests Hughes
focuses frequently (and often brilliantly) upon animals.” It is a fastidious virtue
of Hughes’s poetry that he shares with only the very best poets. In his poems
complexity exists simultaneously with simplicity of expression. His view of the
poet’s role as shaman was one he took seriously, and many of his poems are
unembarrassed shamanic flights of fancy into the animal world. These
excursions to the Jungle enabled him to select his subject of Poem, be it Jaguar,
Pike or Hawk. No one could ever accuse him of simplicity or superficiality, and
yet his poems have closeness with plainness that students, even of a young
age, find alluring and true. They draw the reader in, like black holes, whose
event-horizons are instant, but whose intensities are infinite and utterly
absorbing. His Noah-like cataloguing of the animal kingdom is of course a
further lure to younger readers.