Crows, Loss and a Violent Melancholia

Poet Karen McCarthy Woolf on finding solace in Hughes's work during a troubled childhood. To her his books were more a mood: a dark and brooding presence but one that resonated. That subconscious memory left a deep and metaphorical imprint that has infused her own work in its relationships with landscape, loss and grief.

Ted Hughes died in 1998, and we are still arguing about his legacy. In this series of the Radio 3 Essay, leading poets bring a sharp eye to the poems themselves, reminding us why Hughes is regarded as one of the 20th-century's greatest writers, and exploring how the works match up to, inform and contradict what we know of the man.

Recorded before a live audience at the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Hull in 2018.

Written and read by Karen McCarthy Woolf.
Produced by Simon Richardson.