Tonight I read twelve essential poems from the British poet Ted Hughes (1930-1998). They can all be found in his Collected Poems (smaller selections of his poetry include Selected Poems 1957-1994 and A Ted Hughes Bestiary). In this episode I also read from The Letters of Ted Hughes.

The poems are:

Wind (from the Hawk in the Rain, 1957)
Six Young Men (from the Hawk in the Rain, 1957)
Crow's Song About God (from Crow, 1970-71)
“I skin the skin” (from Gaudete, 1977)
A Green Mother (from Cave Birds, 1978)
Bride and Groom Lie Hidden for Three Days (from Cave Birds, 1978)
Cock-Crows (from Remains of Elmet, 1979)
Rain (from Moortown Diary, 1979)
February 17th (from Moortown Diary, 1979)
Four March Watercolours (from River, 1983)
October Salmon (from River, 1983)
Life After Death (from Birthday Letters, 1998)
This is followed by a reading Hughes gave of his poem, “October Salmon.”

Other episodes on Hughes include one where he discusses privacy for his family in the wake of Sylvia Plath’s posthumous fame; another where he discusses how he discovered poetry; and another, much longer episode of readings (4.5 hours) from Hughes’s poetry.

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