Closing Rifts: The Study Of Ted Hughes' Ecological Thought In His Poems

As one of the most famous contemporary poets in Britain, Ted Hughes was fond of using nature, especially animals as materials to compose poems with, for which he is often called"Nature Poet"and"Animal Poet". Ted Hughes is also called"Poet of Violence"due to his poems with rich colour of violence. Since the publication of his first poem sequence The Hawk in the Rain in 1957, Hughes has arrested the attention of literary critics. In about fifty years critics have studied his works mainly in the light of historical context, social context, religion, culture, language style and many achievements in the research of his works have been made in those aspects.In recent years critics begin to pay attention to the ecological implication in his poems, but Hughes'poems at early and middle stages of writing career are expelled from this perspective. Moreover, such study is mainly revolved around a single poem sequence or only one poem, devoid of systematic and overall penetration. In addition, such researches approach his poems only from the perspective of natural ecology which deals with the relationship between man and nature, and therefore, the vision is not wide enough. The dissertation has the opinion that from The Hawk in the Rain, Hughes had never stopped the composition of ecological poems. His"Poems of Violence"are one part of his ecological poems. Hughes'ecological poems have three dimensions, including natural ecology dealing with the relationship between man and nature, social ecology with the relationship between a man and another or the society, and spiritual ecology with the relationship between man and self. In this sense, Ted Hughes'ecological poems are"Poems of Macroecology", and Ted Hughes is"Poet of Macroecology". The poet not only showed great concern over the status quo of ecological imbalance, he also actively sought for the root of ecological crises and probed for a way out.The serious alienation of man from nature leads to crises of natural ecology, the serious alienation of a man from another or the society to crises of social ecology, and the serious alienation of man from self to crises of spiritual ecology. In Western World today, all the three kinds of ecological crises exist and they are becoming more and more serious. When people paid little attention to ecological crises, Hughes wrote violence into his poems, with the aim of waking up and warning the public so that they would keep their eyes on the ecological issues. When people had some sense of ecology, Hughes began to seek for the root of ecological crises and think about how to close ecological rifts, thus solving the crises and finally realizing harmony between man and the world, including nature, the society and the inner world of people.The dissertation believes that Hughes'ecological outlook is greatly influenced by the universe outlook of ancient Greek people and his ecological outlook in turn has exerted influence on his poems. In Hughes'poems the three relationships, between man and nature, between a man and another or the society and between man and self, are interrelated, and therefore, nature, society and inner world form an ecological entirety. Hughes'outlook of ecological entirety not only extends the territory of ecology, but aslo increases the depth of the ecological thought in his poems.On the one hand, Hughes displays almost all kinds of ecological crises in his poems, and on the other, he deeply reflects upon and then criticizes anthropocentrism and rationalism. Hughes also adopts blanks and myths to appeal to readers, urging them to act without delay, to offer their opinions so that collective wisdoms could be pooled to deal with the crisies.Hughes didn't find a better solution to ecological crises, and in his poems there are no specific steps and methods for modern western civilization to gain rebirth and close the rifts in the relationship between man and nature and that between man and self. Although his poems display only an aesthetic utopia, optimism can still be felt in them and no doubt it gives hope to those who are thinking about tiding over ecological crises.