Ted Hughes

Born 17 August 1930 in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, England.

Educated at Mexborough Grammar School and Cambridge University where he studied English, Anthropology and Archaeology.

His first book of poems, The Hawk in the Rain was published, to critical acclaim, in 1957.

Appointed Poet Laureate in 1984.

Died 28 October 1999.
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From the beginning Hughes’s poetry has been concerned with the relationship between man and the natural world. Implicit in this relationship is the belief that man has alienated himself from the “Energies” or “Powers” of the natural world and cannot find the way to reconciliation. Hughes believed that man’s place is in the natural world. He once said that,

“the whole world of nature...is of course what we have to live in, and what we are part of, what we grow out of”.

Hughes’ career as a poet can be seen as an endeavour to heal this split by finding a way of reconciling man with the natural world. There is a gradual development in his poetry from a preoccupation with identifying and describing alienated man and the natural energies, to a celebration of wholeness of being.

And in Birthday Letters it would appear that the creative energies released by the artist’s imagination do appear to be the restorative vehicle Ted Hughes uses in an attempt to heal the split between himself and Sylvia Plath by confronting aspects of their relationship from a very definite personal perspective. However, the dominant motif that runs through Birthday Letters is one of separation, of something split, of something hidden and not reconciled. The imagery is often very physical and violent. So the healing process would not appear to be one of reconciliation - this would obviously be impossible - but one of understanding.