Crow (From the Life and Songs of the Crow) - Ted Hughes

Overview Crow: From the life and songs of the Crow is a collection of poems detailing the life of fictional character Crow, written in 1970 by former poet laureate Ted Hughes. It is regarded as one of the crowning achievements of a long and distinguished career in poetry. Review Imagine, if you will, a being of pure, unalloyed darkness. With neither place nor purpose in God's freshly cast creation. Neither loved nor wanted. A mystery of existence, searching for meaning (and discarded ice creams) in a sad and lonely world. A place of emptiness and tragedy. A world we can so easily recognise ... more

There are few collections of poetry which are as brutal and daring as this. Crow, to me, represents the ego. These poems explore our relationship with Nature and come to the conclusions that the world is a brutal and harsh place. From Crow's Theology: Crow realized God loved him- Otherwise, he would have dropped dead. So that was proved. Crow reclined, marvelling, on his heart-beat. . . . And what loved the shot-pellets That dribbled from those strung-up mummifying crows? What spoke the silence of lead? Crow realized there were two Gods- One of them much bigger than the other Loving his ... more