Abstract:
Ted Hughes, inarguably one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, occupies an unparalleled
position in contemporary English poetry chiefly because of hispoetics of animal imagery
that has so far been approached from different perspectives. This paper focuses on Hughes’s
representative poems and puts forth the theory that his arts poetica actually develops from
two simultaneous feelings, firstly his conviction in pristine animal energy, and secondly, his
disillusionment about the humanization of man through the suppression of his primeval
energy. These diametrical feelings make Hughes speak in favour of the suppressed elements
of the psyche which alone promise resilience in the face of uncaring reality. Hughes thinks
the civilizing ideologies actually result in the subversion of the primal imperviousness of the
alter ego which is spontaneously manifested in non-human beings. A corollary of this paper
is that Hughes’s signature poems encompassing ‘The Hawk in the Rain’, ‘The Jaguar’, ‘Hawk
Roosting’, ‘Pike’, ‘Snowdrop, ‘Second Glance at a Jaguar’ etc. and the Crow Poems make more
sense when studied with reference to human alter ego represented through the poet’s conscious
delineation of non-human instincts.
