This week is the long-awaited poet, Ted Hughes. He has been a great influence upon modern poets and so I feel it is worth time to look at a longer poem than usual; I found 'Daffodils' but apparently I can only get a part of the poem. I shall have to do some more hunting for that one. Another that I like is this:
Bride and Groom Lie Hidden for Three Days
She gives him his eyes, she found them
Among some rubble, among some beetles
He gives her her skin
He just seemed to pull it down out of the air and lay it over her
She weeps with fearfulness and astonishment
She has found his hands for him, and fitted them freshly at the wrists
They are amazed at themselves, they go feeling all over her
He has assembled her spine, he cleaned each piece carefully
And sets them in perfect order
A superhuman puzzle but he is inspired
She leans back twisting this way and that, using it and laughing
Incredulous
Now she has brought his feet, she is connecting them
So that his whole body lights up
And he has fashioned her new hips
With all fittings complete and with newly wound coils, all shiningly oiled
He is polishing every part, he himself can hardly believe it
They keep taking each other to the sun, they find they can easily
To test each new thing at each new step
And now she smoothes over him the plates of his skull
So that the joints are invisible
And now he connects her throat, her breasts and the pit of her stomach
With a single wire
She gives him his teeth, tying the the roots to the centrepin of his body
He sets the little circlets on her fingertips
She stitches his body here and there with steely purple silk
He oils the delicate cogs of her mouth
She inlays with deep cut scrolls the nape of his neck
He sinks into place the inside of her thighs
So, gasping with joy, with cries of wonderment
Like two gods of mud
Sprawling in the dirt, but with infinite care
They bring each other to perfection.
Among some rubble, among some beetles
He gives her her skin
He just seemed to pull it down out of the air and lay it over her
She weeps with fearfulness and astonishment
She has found his hands for him, and fitted them freshly at the wrists
They are amazed at themselves, they go feeling all over her
He has assembled her spine, he cleaned each piece carefully
And sets them in perfect order
A superhuman puzzle but he is inspired
She leans back twisting this way and that, using it and laughing
Incredulous
Now she has brought his feet, she is connecting them
So that his whole body lights up
And he has fashioned her new hips
With all fittings complete and with newly wound coils, all shiningly oiled
He is polishing every part, he himself can hardly believe it
They keep taking each other to the sun, they find they can easily
To test each new thing at each new step
And now she smoothes over him the plates of his skull
So that the joints are invisible
And now he connects her throat, her breasts and the pit of her stomach
With a single wire
She gives him his teeth, tying the the roots to the centrepin of his body
He sets the little circlets on her fingertips
She stitches his body here and there with steely purple silk
He oils the delicate cogs of her mouth
She inlays with deep cut scrolls the nape of his neck
He sinks into place the inside of her thighs
So, gasping with joy, with cries of wonderment
Like two gods of mud
Sprawling in the dirt, but with infinite care
They bring each other to perfection.
This poem is beautifully intimate without being explicit. It encapsulates the symmetry of husband and wife and how the physical connection aids the spiritual or mental one. The theme is giving and sharing - a marital theme. Both man and woman act in return to the other's act, showing their equality.
I am glad that the woman's 'fearfulness' recedes into 'perfection', for the tone would have become eerie if that emotion had been further pursued. What is slightly odd is the mechanical motif, with oil and steel depicting the scene. Perhaps the suggestion is that a marriage builds itself slowly, eventually creating a working machine that might need repairing from time to time but hopefully was built to last. Also, Hughes sees intercourse as a matching process, where specific parts are compatible with others, requiring them in order to function properly.
So marriage is about renewal, fitting two people together as they were made to be. Perhaps Hughes believed in soul mates, or maybe the 'new' parts show that anyone can make a marriage work, even against the odds.
I am glad that the woman's 'fearfulness' recedes into 'perfection', for the tone would have become eerie if that emotion had been further pursued. What is slightly odd is the mechanical motif, with oil and steel depicting the scene. Perhaps the suggestion is that a marriage builds itself slowly, eventually creating a working machine that might need repairing from time to time but hopefully was built to last. Also, Hughes sees intercourse as a matching process, where specific parts are compatible with others, requiring them in order to function properly.
So marriage is about renewal, fitting two people together as they were made to be. Perhaps Hughes believed in soul mates, or maybe the 'new' parts show that anyone can make a marriage work, even against the odds.