Companions in Literature: Ted Hughes

Reader Contribution by Staff

In 1960, writer Ted Hughes described in a letter a “moral fable” that formed a permanent cornerstone of his writing:

“… when you hurt something or somebody else, there is also a spirit in you which receives the hurt.”

He was describing a story he had written about a hunter who kills a hare and then seems to become a hare, at least in his mind.

Ted Hughes has been one of the steadfast companions of my life. Like other nerd children I learned early to keep company with writers, and the writers who’ve accompanied me through life are more real and complete to me than acquaintances and, often, friends. Hughes’ poetry has been, for me, a literary reflection of my own understandings of nature, masculinity and human life. He’s important to me.

Ted’s “moral fable” echoes strangely across the years since his first wife, the poet Sylvia Plath, committed suicide during their estrangement, and his mistress, Assia Wevill, mimicked that suicide during her own estrangement from the poet and killed their infant daughter in the same horrific act.

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