There were a lot of common themes throughout this section of poems: light, crows, religion, science/nature, sight, life (birth, death), pain, babies, blood, and tears. A lot of these were also words that repeated throughout many of the poems.
A cry
Wordless
As the newborn baby's grieving (Dawn's Rose, lines 8-10)
Crys collide and erupt luggage and babies
In laughter (In Laughter, lines 1-2)
The unhurt eyes were full of deadliness ...
And mouths cried "Mamma" ...
Shock-severed eyes watched blood ...
There was no escape except into death.
And still it went on -- it outlasted
Many prayers (Crow's Account of the Battle, lines 14,19, 22, 33-35)
This repetition of ideas really helped connect this collection of poems, giving it a common theme and really allowing Hughes to delve even deeper into ideas he was passionate about. For example, nearly all of his poems surrounded the idea of life and death and how religion could be tied into his life. Religion and the idea of a god's hand into his life was a major part of Ted Hughes (and Sylvia Plath's) life. To see this idea come to life within his writing was very interesting to see.
One of the poems that I really enjoyed was "Lineage." It took a couple of read-throughs, but I finally realized that the entire list all linked back to the word "scream."
In the beginning was Scream
Who begat Blood
Who begat Eye
Who begat Fear
Who begat Wing
Who begat Bone
Who begat Granite
Who begat Violet
Who begat Guitar
Who begat Sweat
Who begat Adam
Who begat Mary
Who begat God (lines 1-13).
This section of the poem speaks the idea that everything listed has been brought into being by the first thing - Scream. In one sense, we can link this back to the fact that birth often comes along with a screaming child. In this same way, something death comes with a scream as well. One other part of this I found interesting was what each line symbolized: biology, perception, emotional, animalistic, anatomy, solidity, color, music, labor, and finally religion. All of these things connect to our life and society, and the fact that the last three are all about religion speaks to the idea that religion has become, and has always been, a huge part of our culture.
Even though I didn't really relate to this section of Hughes poetry all that much, I did think they were an interesting, if not repetitive, read. Thoughts welcome!
In the Crow poems, Hughes develops a counter theology. "In the beginning was scream" relates to "in the beginning was the word." In Hughes's creation story, all of creation is generated from this primal scream--the scream of birth, as you suggest, and, as I think, the scream of pain, hunger, thirst, need.
ReplyDeleteIt's fascinating that God is the last in this series of begettings--from Adam, to Mary, to God. How did Adam beget Mary, and Mary God?
Karl Marx called religion the "opium of the people." I used to think that he meant religion functions like a drug in that it keeps us from the truth. These days I think he meant that human beings need religion to alleviate their suffering, to console them to life, and give them hope.
Somehow I find Hughes's "Lineage" moving in that direction.