Ted Hughes and his Animal World: Analysis of Select Poems

A critical study of some of his best ¿animal¿ poems convey his concept of the primal energies of the natural world that stress the absolute otherness of that world and the relationship between these energies and the divided nature of man. His celebration of animal life, in a way, reflects the affirmation of all life. He is anti-rationalist and yet an agnostic. He argues that puritanical repression has alienated man from his natural instincts and laments that modern man, in the present cultural crisis, has lost his moorings and bearings in nature. His major poetic preoccupations are: nature and myth. He is obsessed with animals, animal energies and the darks, mysterious forces that are latently embodied in natural world.