Fishing with Ted Hughes

[@dalepiper6693]

You brought back memories for me Malcolm. When I was teaching History my friend and colleague who was Head Of English in the same college was a huge fan of Ted Hughes and he used to regale me with his poetry as we smoked a pipe together...lovely memories.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Excellent

[@sirvelociraptor2590]

Good morning Malcolm! What a great way to start the day, only fishing could make it better

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Absolutely

[@jmalko9152]

Thank you for the reading and the background!

[@janeevans8318]

Thank you, Malcolm Guite. Am currently obsessed with both Kubla Khan and "I wandered lonely...." Consequently it seems that much leads back to these two poems. An echo or a nod.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

yes I also love both those poems!

[@Bradford.C.Wallsbury]

My favourite poet. Thankyou Malcolm!

[@alexandrefreitas9558]

You, sir, suddenly got a brazilian admire. May the Lord bless you.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Wow, thank you

[@alexandrefreitas9558]

@@MalcolmGuitespell I am here learning with you, so I am the one that should thank you, Mr. Malcolm Guite.

[@marclayne9261]

Beautiful & Sublime......

[@aurorastorm9842]

Ted Hughes was a force of Nature . I love his poetry and Birthday Letters is extremely emotive, intimate and insightful about his time with Sylvia.

[@timhower3628]

Alaska! You just made my night. Lived there for twenty-nine years. I wonder where he was in the State?

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Thanks, there's quite a lot about his visits there in Jonathan Bates biography

[@northcountryfisher2121]

Ted Hughes is possibly my favourite poet, and the fact he's a Yorkshireman and a Fisher probably helps. Is that a copy of Issac Walton's complete angler on the bottom Shelf?

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

yes it is, I will do a 'spell' about that some time

[@timnixon4976]

Have you read Hughes's Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being? I think it is totally bonkers.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

yes it is a bit OTT but interesting nevertheless

[@MartinMcAvoy]

Wonderful commentary. Ted Hughes was a difficult person, always so caught up in his own imagination and totally uncompromising about his art. I know people who knew him, spent time with him and whom he appeared to be fond. But they could not really know him, any more than people might imagine they understand the motives of an ancient Akkadian king. I think he would prefer his words to do the talking and for people to take from them whatever they like.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

thanks, that's interesting, and I'm sure he was indeed difficult, but look what he has left us!

[@MarkEGreen-rf4on]

Evening Malcolm, I've read half of Bate's biography of Ted Hughes and reached the conclusion that it is hindered by the withdrawal of the Hughes family's permission for Bate to continue to consult the archive. This was due to their disapproval of the direction that Bate was taking it. Feinstein's biography is shorter and less detailed, but in my view is not a lesser work for that. Bate, a respected scholar, who wrote a good life of John Clare, has not been able to quote fully from Hughes' poetry because of the withdrawal of the estate's permission. He has been accused of making some unsubstantiated claims and conjectures by Hughes' wife and some of the critics have not always been kind. Clearly, Hughes' life was tragic as well as glittering in the sense of his literary achievements. He paid a great price for his infidelities; like many people of genius he was flawed. Thanks for the video...no pipe today! I haven't smoked since November and am missing it. God bless.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

yes, it seems its impossible for anyone to write about Hughes without being embroiled in all the controversy, and the sometimes difficult demands of the Hughes Estate. Even his own college was refused permission to quote poems in full in an online seminar celebrating his work which takes place tonight

[@Nighttrainpiper]

Reminiscent of Thoreau and the transcendentalists

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

indeed! I must read some thorough in one of these episodes