“Life After Death” by Ted Hughes: Poem Analysis

The poem “Life After Death” by Ted Hughes is a hymn of the sharpest grief and devastation that can only appear after losing the dearest and beloved person. When people continue living after their closest friend and the meaning of their existence dies, it is not a true life anymore. It is an unbearable survival when pointless days come and go, and everything loses sense. Children who lose their mother turn into the hardest substance of the purest pain with wet jewels instead of eyes and a pale shadow with the wound. When a husband loses his wife, he becomes the Hanged Man, dropped from life, and without any senses left. The only creatures capable of understanding and comforting them are wolves, which can wound the walking dead, entangle them, mourn for them, weave into their voices.