Ted Hughes, Howls and Whispers

Vassilis Manoussakis (University of the Peloponnese)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1998

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poem collection

Resources

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Ten days before the death of England’s poet laureate, Ted Hughes, on the 28th October 1998, the

London Times

published a piece of poetry by Hughes that was known only to a chosen few among the poetry readership.. It was a poem titled “The Offers” which belonged to the collection

Howls and Whispers

which Hughes had written in the same year as his famous

Birthday Letters

. However, either due to a poetic perversion on Hughes’s part or due to the 11 poems’ great significance within Hughes’s “restoration” of his relationship with his muse, Sylvia Plath, which began with the 88 poems of

Birthday Letters

, these poems were published in a Gehenna Press limited and fine edition of 110 copies, illustrated with Leonard Baskin’s drawings for each one. These copies were distributed…

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3205 words

Citation: Manoussakis, Vassilis. "Howls and Whispers". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 March 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23526, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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