The Letchworth Settlement:  User Groups

This course is an introduction to the life and poetry of one of the 20th Century’s greatest British poets, Ted Hughes, who was Poet Laureate, 1984-98. In making links between the poet’s life and his work, we shall be drawing upon Elaine Feinstein’s biography of Hughes (Ted Hughes: The Life of a Poet, 2001), and his Collected Poems, 2003 and Birthday Letters, 1998. There will be a discussion of his relationship with his first wife, the American poet Sylvia Plath, and his mistress, Assia Wevill, as well as excursions into Crow, and Tales from Ovid, 1999. No prior knowledge of Hughes’s life or work will be assumed.