Most Popular Books by Ted Hughes

A collection of illustrated poems about animals.

All the poems of a great 20th-century poet.

This critical magnum opus, unprecedented in Shakespeare studies for its scope and daring, is nothing less than an attempt to show the Complete Works - dramatic and poetic - as a single, tightly integrated, evolving organism. Identifying Shakespeare''s use of the two most significant religious myths of the archaic world in the poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, Ted Hughes argues that these myths later provided Shakespeare with templates for the construction of every play from All''s Well that Ends Well to The Tempest; and that this development, in turn, represented his poetic exploration of conflicts within the ''living myth'' of the English Reformation. The claim is a large one, but Hughes supports his thesis with erudition and a painstakingly close analysis of language, plots and characters. A multitude of dazzling insights, such as only one great poet can offer into the work of another, is generated in the process, and our entire understanding of Shakespeare, his art and imagination, is radically transformed.

This is a collection of poems that celebrates royal occasions including the birth of Prince Henry by Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes. --Faber and Faber.

A Dancer to God brings together three short pieces written in homage to T. S. Eliot. They were prompted, in turn, by the unveiling of a plaque, by a reading of The Waste Land in a London theatre, and by a centenary dinner. But each piece far transcends its occasion, and may be read as part of a sustained meditation on the very nature of Eliot''s greatness as a poet. Readers of Ted Hughes''s Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being, will find in this smaller book a comparable incisiveness and understanding of the spiritual demands imposed by supreme creative genius.

This volume replaced Ted Hughes''s Selected Poems 1957-1981. It contains a larger selection from the same period, to which are added poems from more recent books, uncollected poems from each decade of Ted Hughes''s writing life, and some new work. Another notable feature is the inclusion of poems from his books for younger readers, What is the Truth? and Season Songs.

Wolfwatching, Ted Hughes''s fourteenth collection of poetry, contains several characteristic poems, in which nature is presented with striking exactitude, unclouded by sentiment. But Hughes breaks new ground with a number of intimate and unforgettable poems that memorialize members of his family as they were in his youth, in the years following the First World War.

In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical reactions they express in their prefaces, the editors offer insights into their own work as well as providing an accessible and passionate introduction to some of the greatest poets in our literature.Ted Hughes (1930-98) was born in Yorkshire. His first book, The Hawk in the Rain, was published in 1957. His last collection, Birthday Letters, was published in 1998 and won the Whitbread Book of the Year, the Forward Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1984 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1998.

All the richness of the wild is seen through the poet''s eye. Here are poems from Hawk in the Rain, Wodwo, Wolfwatching, Lupercal and River as well as from Adam and the Sacred Nine, their juxtaposition highlighting the variety of the natural world and of Hughes''s poetry about it.

A sequence of poems and drawings which capture the essence of the lonely, mysterious creatures who struggle to survive under the North Star.

El poemario que escribió Ted Hughes en silencio a su primera esposa, Sylvia Plath «Este libro irrumpe con la fuerza inesperada de un rayo y leerlo es como sufrir su descarga eléctrica. [...] Nunca se había visto nada parecido en literatura.» Andrew Motion, The London Times Pocos meses antes de morir, Ted Hughes sorprendió al mundo con la publicación de Cartas de cumpleaños, un libro donde se reunían los poemas que, a lo largo de las últimas décadas, le había escrito en silencio a su primera esposa, la poeta norteamericana Sylvia Plath, quien acabó con su vida en febrero de 1963. A lo largo de estas páginas, Hughes, desde el centro de la intimidad, recuerda su relación con Plath, comenzando por el día en que se conocieron hasta los constantes y fatales tormentos que desembocaron en el suicidio de la poeta. Más allá de la anécdota biográfica, Cartas de cumpleaños es ya uno de los poemarios fundamentales de fi nales del siglo XX, una valiente conversación con una amada sombra en el quieto contraluz del recuerdo, una celebración de la vida, de la pasión extrema, a la vez que una poderosa meditación sobre la muerte. Y, por encima de todo, constituye la fulgurante despedida de uno de los mayores poetas de nuestro tiempo. La crítica ha dicho: «Este libro irrumpe con la fuerza inesperada de un rayo y leerlo es como sufrir su descarga eléctrica. Su potencia es a veces tierna, a veces humorística, a veces angustiada y brota siempre de un presente abrasador e inmóvil. Quienes pensaron que la reticencia de Hughes era una prueba de insensibilidad se darán cuenta inmediatamente de que los insensibles eran ellos. Estamos ante un libro escrito por alguien obsesionado, herido y que estuvo profundamente enamorado. Nunca se había visto nada parecido en literatura.» Andrew Motion, The London Times «Un libro extraordinario. [...] El tema de Hughes es la propia Plath: cómo era, cómo se movía y hablaba, sus gustos, rabias, sueños insólitos y múltiples miedos, lo que funcionaba entre ellos y lo que no.» A. Álvarez, The New Yorker «Los críticos que nos instan a considerar estos poemas como obras maestras tienen razón. Su intensidad de sentimiento, la claridad de sus imágenes, la precisión, la energía, la simplicidad y la fluidez de su lenguaje siguen siendo sorprendentes.» Paul Levy, The Wall Street Journal «Un tono emocional, directo, arrepentido y extasiado impregna los poemas más poderosos del libro, que son plácidos, reflexivos y conversacionales.» Katha Pollitt, The New York Times Book Review «La mayoría de estos poemas contienen una maravillosa inmediatez y ternura que es nueva en la escritura de Hughes, una ternura que le permite transmitir los terrores de Plath de una manera tan palpable como su propia poesía, y contagiar su propia sensación de pérdida y dolor. [...] Leedlos, pues constituyen el trabajo más fuerte y emocionalmente palpable de la carrera de Hughes.» Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times «La publicación estos poemas es el evento más sensacional en la historia reciente de la poesía en inglés.» Christopher Benfey, Slate

First published in 1984, this book of prose-linked animal poems won both the Guardian Children''s Fiction Award and the Signal Poetry Award. This new, illustated edition remains ''a very beautiful book: God and his son go to visit mankind and ask a few simple questions . . . the poems are pure enchantment'' (The School Librarian).

A collection of Ted Hughes'' poetry from previously published works, including "The Hawk in the Rain," "Lupercal," "Cave Birds," and "Season Songs."

The fearsome iron giant becomes a hero when he challenges a huge space monster.

When a giant iron woman arises from a marsh near a waste disposal factory, all men over eighteen turn into water creatures, and an entire country must confront the problems of pollution.