Ted Hughes's "Crow" Poems
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This paper explains that poets and prophets have traditionally used animal figures to convey criticism of the existing culture, endowing the natural with metaphoric importance. The author points out that Hughes slowly shapes the crow into a sort of prototype for evolved humanity, representing both our worst and best traits. This paper discusses that Hughes's poems use the crow as a metaphor for humanity. The paper relates that Hughes's work appears to be that of a human being experiencing the life of a raven-bird; a fallen creature, a trickster, and a graveyard for the bodies of those he eats.
From the Paper:"It is in this poem in particular that one understands how the Crow might be seen as the shadow-self of human kind. He destroys everything around him in an attempt to destroy the "Black Beast" that the reader at least is becoming aware is the Crow himself. It is quite possible that humanity is the only species, which is its own worst enemy and predator. The greatest threats to humankind come from our own people, as the World Wars would have blatantly shown to Hughes. Repeatedly in the Crow poems, the bird looks at itself and its works in horror and sorrow. One can take examples from "The Black Beast" in which Crow hunts himself unknowingly in hunting the enemy, or from "Crow's Nerve Fails" in which he fully realizes the weight of murders that hang about his shoulders. Yet these are not the only examples."
Cite this Analytical Essay:
Ted Hughes's "Crow" Poems (2004, April 15) Retrieved March 24, 2017, from http://www.academon.com/analytical-essay/ted-hughes-crow-poems-50467/
"Ted Hughes's "Crow" Poems" 15 April 2004. Web. 24 March. 2017. <http://www.academon.com/analytical-essay/ted-hughes-crow-poems-50467/>