A Study Of Ted Hughes's Elegies

Ted Hughes?1930-1998?,an English Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death,is one of the most prominent poets in English poetry after WWII.His vigorous,bold and fresh poetic style makes him illustrious among literary world.His elegies are also unique in modern poetry.Elegy refers to a specific verse form in Classical Greek literature,and it becomes a literary carrier of expressing sorrow and lamenting for the dead.Hughes is tortured through his lifetime,which overshadowed by his family bereavement tragedies and traumatized war memories,and hard to relieve.Moreover,the poet was born at Calder Valley in the north of England where used to be part of the last Celtic dynasty–Elmet dynasty.Due to deeply immersion in Celtic culture,he perceives the declination of the Celtic civilization.The tortures the poet has experienced turn into inspirations of poetry creation and a good remedy for trauma healing.This study takes Hughes's 37 elegies from his 15 poetry collections and his poetics as the research object,uses the theory of New Criticism and the method of formalistic studies as research instruction,to explore the poet's inheritance and innovation on the elegiac form and connotations in his elegies through tracing back to the history of elegies,and unveils the profound significance in his elegies.This thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One introduces the research background,literature review and significance of the thesis.Chapter Two traces the history of elegy,states the uniqueness of Hughes's elegies in the historical context.From elegiac distich in Classical Greek literature to elegiac pentameter couplets made by poets like John Donne in the 17^th century,then to the churchyard elegies by Thomas Gray in the 18^th century,the elegy goes through the development from a specific verse form to a carrier of poetic connotations.Hughes,as a modern poet,breaks through the metrical elegiac form made by previous poets,and focuses on the creation of semi-metrical and semi-free elegiac verse form.Chapter Three discusses the experience of loss in Hughes's elegies,and unveils the poet's motives of writing elegiac poems.This chapter aims to unfold the roots of the poet's miseries from three aspects:tragic bereavement of his family members,his memories of war trauma and his melancholy towards the decay of the Celtic civilization,then to explore the profound meaning of his elegies.Chapter Four demonstrates the process of the poet's seeking for consolation in Hughes's elegies,and shows the healing power of his elegies.This chapter probes into the spiritual revitalization process of awakening people's yearning for modern social life through the poet's confrontation with grief,re-introspection with relief,and revival of the Celtic civilization,and tries to manifest Hughes's national responsibilities and humanistic concern as a Poet Laureate.Chapter Five summarizes the major findings and limitations of the whole thesis,and aims at deepening readers'understanding of Hughes's elegies.