Winter Pollen : Occasional Prose

by Ted Hughes, William Scammell (Editor)

A collection of prose pieces by the Poet Laureate, on literary matters and on writers as diverse as Emily Dickinson, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Walter de la Mare, T.S. Eliot, Wilfred Owen and Sylvia Plath. Hughes also expresses concerns about education, the environment, and the arts in general.

Genres: Poetry, Literary Criticism, Essays, Criticism, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published March 6, 1995

About the author

Edward James Hughes was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1984 and held the office until his death. In 2008, The Times ranked Hughes fourth on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
He married fellow poet Sylvia Plath in 1956, and they lived together in the United States and then in England, in a tumultuous relationship. They had two children before separating in 1962 and Plath ended her own life in 1963.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

In which, as with most of Hughes' prose, we learn more about the author than the subject.

[T.J. Jarrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been on Team Hughes for some time now. We read too little of Hughes in lieu of Plath in college, making it into some kind of girl solidarity. This collection of his prose: discussions of children's poetry, about capturing the poem, about his views on putting out Plath's work after her death makes him human, even if he's the kind of man who marries unstable, yet talented women.

It's worth the price of admission simply for his discussion of craft.

[Kulchur Kat]

Ted Hughes has such a wild and interesting take on the poetic self. Winter Pollen contains two of the great essays on Shakespeare and TS Eliot, were Hughes posits a theory of the poet in history and society: the poetic self as shaman. A transcendental poetic calling. He embues the visionary poets, Shakespeare, WB Yeats, TS Eliot, with the shamanic powers of healing the damaged tribe in the face of a tribal disaster. Shakespeare weaves the spiritual shockwaves of post-Reformation England into his drama and binds the two opposing religions together. WB Yeats has a shamanic role on the grandest scale in its messianic form to re-build Ireland after centuries of bitter English rule. TS Eliot grapples with his shamanic summoning, the poetic calling, in the face of the spiritual emptiness of Europe after the shockwaves of Darwin, Marx, Freud and the ‘desacralized landscape’ of the First World War. That he would find a spirituality in the meaninglessness is Eliot’s brilliance.

[Claudia Putnam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm going to take this off the list for now even though it's a DNF and something I plan to return to, mostly. 5 stars for what I did read. I skipped a bunch of book reviews for things I most likely will never read, though sometimes I got sucked in anyway , his writing is just that strong.

The Sylvia Plath parts are of course what will draw a lot readers. I found them largely exonerating for much of the criticism leveled at the evil Hughes. You know, for rearranging her manuscript, for destroying some of her journals, etc.

The thing is, she'd herself moved her TOC around, and it's very hard to arrange a manuscript of poetry. Despite come of her other successes, it had been very hard to find a publisher for Ariel--it took several years, in fact, so there were several rearrangements. As for the destruction of a one or two of her journals, it would have been better to have kept them. But he was in the crush of the loss, and there was content he says he did not think the children should see. Everyone has assumed this content had to do with Hughes, and perhaps some of it did. But I would guess a fair amount was directed at the children. Trying to write with young children around, especially when you feel, as Plath did, that you have to be the perfect mother, is a nightmare. I can see why he would want to keep this material away from the kids, given the fact that their mother killed herself while they were alone in the house with her.

Anyway, I read a couple of other really interesting essays about writing, but I'm putting it aside for now.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hughes's poetry ranges from the inspired to the embarrassing. Unfortunately, his nonfiction never escapes the latter. A muddle of occult beliefs, naive oppositions, and folk (mis)understandings. The only redeeming quality here is that Hughes was a proponent of eco-conservation way way way before anyone else. Otherwise, tripe.

[Sarah westcott · Rating 5 out of 5]

fascinating insight into a master-poet's mind and mythic sensibility. Both enabling and exquisite. A lot taken from Poetry in the Making, which is always worth a re-read for its attention to the inner and outer worlds.

[Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic collection of Hughes' essays and literary criticism. Hughes brings an artist's experience and insight to his criticism, which raises it to the level of almost psychic communion with its subject. Some of these pieces are truly astonishing in their insight.

[June Schwarz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lovely muddle, great fun to read in fits and starts. Hughes is so clever, but he hides it in some pretty ponderous, laconic prose.

[Bruce Macdonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

The essential Hughes in prose by way of thought and locution. It astounds with its breadth and insight. I used to read this book every couple years in my twenties.

[kerrycat · Rating 4 out of 5]

some essays definitely a five star - possibly six of five - but others, more of a three. Such is the case with most of these collections. The Shakespeare pieces are brilliant, of course.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weedy.

[Laura]

I only read the Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath parts the rest seemed rather boring.