Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Donald F. McKay

Critical Essay by Donald F. McKay

SOURCH: "Animal Music: Ted Hughes's Progress in Speech and Song," in English in Studies in Canada, Vol. VII, No. 1, Spring, 1981, pp. 81-92.

[In the following essay, McKay discusses Hughes's use of and emphasis on language in Crow and Gaudete.]

In the blighted landscape of Crow, scarred with the repeated failures of genesis, it is startling to come across "Glimpse" close to the end of the book:

     "O leaves," Crow sang, trembling, "O leaves—"
 
     The touch of a leaf's edge at his throat
     Guillotined further comment.
 
                                        Nevertheless
     Speechless he continued to stare at the leaves
     Through the god's head instantly substituted.

Crow, bred out of God's abortive efforts to create, surviving on carrion and garbage, reveals this surprising capacity for awe, and attempts to sing in the manner of a romantic ode. This gesture toward lyric flight, "O leaves," is tossed up and shelved there, a striking exception to the book's policy of using...
(read more)