Unveiling Ted Hughes’s Insight into Man and Animal Relationship

Abstract

Ted Hughes, unlike some modern poets, is profoundly concerned with the subject matter of his poetry. His poetry offers a wide range and variety. His subjects range from animals, landscapes and war to the philosophical and metaphysical queries about the universe. But the world of animals is Hughes’s favourite territory. His description of the animals observed is remarkably vivid, startling and yet truthful. The animals actually observed and described by Ted Hughes in his poems cover a wide range. The Hawk, the thrush, the pike, the Jaguar, the bull, the skylark, the mouse, the horse, the cat, the pig, the otter and several others figure in his poems. Ted Hughes discovers symbolic significance in the animals which he observes and describes. He uses metaphors to unveil man and animal relationship. His purpose in writing these animal poems is to ridicule and to mock at the struggle and strive going on in the human world and at the same time, directly and symbolically depicting the contrasts and sometimes the similarity between animals and mankind.