Ted Hughes was a prolific writer who wrote several hundred poems for young readers, and who was Britain's Poet Laureate from 1984 until his dead in 1998. For today's poetry title I have reviewed an excellent collection of Ted Hughes' poems.
Ted Hughes
Illustrated by Raymond Briggs
Poetry
For ages 6 and up
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005, 978-0-374-31429-3
During his lifetime, Ted Hughes wrote hundreds of poems for
young people. He was particularly fond of writing poems about animals, both
real creatures like seals and skunks, and fantastical ones like the Loch Ness
monster and the Mountain Dugong. He is probably most well known for his
humorous verse, but he also wrote many poems that have a more serious and
contemplative feel.
In this collection,
more than two hundred and fifty of Ted Hughes’ poems have been brought together
to give readers a memorable reading adventure. The poems are arranged by volume,
beginning with The Mermaid’s Purse,
and ending with Season Songs. The
poems at the beginning of the book are for younger children, while those in the
later collection are better suited to more mature readers (including adults).
Young children are
going to love reading about the sea creatures that appear in the The Mermaid’s Purse collection. Here
they will meet a ragworm, a poor creature that was once “all the rage,” but who
was cruelly supplanted by fish, those animals who favor the “Fashion of
Flounce.” On these pages they will also meet a mermaid and a sea monster. The
latter’s appearance makes a child feel so terrified that he “cannot cry” and is
“Completely numb.”
In The Cat and the Cuckoo collection we
meet familiar animals like the cow, mole, and donkey. Of course Ted Hughes
manages to describe his subjects in wonderfully creative and often amusing
ways. We find out that the humble shrew, despite its small size and very
“tender, waggling nose,” is a temperamental creature that will, when it meets
another of its kind, “fight to the death.” Another small furry beast, the mole,
insists that it should always “travel by hole.” Though its sensitive nose is
like “a beam of light” cutting through the darkness underground, its eyes are
tiny and not very useful.
Next we move on to Meet my Folks, which is where we get to
know Grandpa, Brother Bert, and many others. Among other things, we learn that
“ma” is a superlative cook who rustles up massive cakes for maharajas, “Whipped-Cream
Goose,” and rattlesnake curry with “Crème de la Cactus.” Sister Jane is an
honest to goodness bird, a “great big crow” who has to go about disguised so
that no one knows what she really is.
These three
sections are followed by five others, ending with poems from What is truth? and Season Songs.
Readers will be
able to grow up with this book, reading the amusing poems at the beginning of
the book when they are young, and exploring the more thoughtful and perhaps and
demanding poems when they are older. This is a book to keep at hand, to dip
into, and to enjoy at quiet moments.
No comments:
Post a Comment