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Article: Stare at the Monster.(Comment)(Ted Hughes: Collected Poems)(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Poetry
- Article date:
- February 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Modern Poetry Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Ted Hughes: Collected Poems. Ed. by Paul Keegan. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. $50.00.
I have a dim sense of how Ted Hughes may be perceived here in America. ("Stare at the monster," he wrote in a poem, "Famous Poet," from the 1950s.) I have a slightly clearer sense of how Hughes has fared in the UK, at least over the last twenty years. Neither is the slightest use in preparing one for--a word I certifiably use for the first time in print!--an awesome collection of poems. Hughes is at least arguably the greatest English poet since Shakespeare; what's the competition? Milton, Pope, Keats, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Hardy, (maybe) Larkin. I think such a view can be ...