Myth in the world of literature is perceived and analyzed as archaic superstition. A number of poets referring to various periods of art development, whether Classicism or Romanticism, are considered to be “myth-makers” in a way as they rename the world through making reorder of familiar words and creating new ones. Mythmaking in literature can be analyzed on the examples of famous poets such as Ted Hughes and Geoffrey Hill who managed to embody the mythological elements in their outstanding masterpieces.
For many poets myth is regarded to be an integral part of their personal style and manner of theme presentation; they perform mythological style through symbols, characters, and deep plot – all these factors can be observed in the works by Ted Hughes and Geoffrey Hill.
Ted Hughes
Brief Biography
Edward James Hughes is considered to be an English poet of the XX century who is recognized as one of the best poets of the time. He was born in 1930 and managed to become British Poet Laureate in 1984.
His life was followed by complicated relationships with close people being reflected in some of his works. Ted Hughes is also a well-known children’s writer who managed to create a number of interesting and involving stories for kids. His devotion to children’s literature is explained by the author’s personal childhood experience which “shaped everything” in further life.
Hughes’s interest in poetic writings was expressed from an early age; he tried to combine the violence and beauty of the world of nature in order to demonstrate all aspects of human life. (West, 112)
Myth-Making in Hughes’ Works
Ted Hughes was deeply interested in mythology expressing his style of writing through satirical, existential, and modernist positions. Ted Hughes tried to reflect his personal sense of myth expressed in the poetry.
“Objective imagination, in the light of science,
rejected religion as charlatanism,
and the inner world as a bundle of fairy tales,
a relic of primeval superstition…” (West, 36)
Critics argued as to such poet’s position as science was considered to be as mythic poetry; Hughes managed to disclose the mythic nature of the world by means of elemental, dangerous, and chaotic conceptions.
Ted Hughes is referred to as the myth makers of his period as he managed to introduce mythic function of his fairy characters such as devils, dragons, etc. Myth in Hughes’s works makes objectified stories expressing psychic healing and being close to drama mood. In most works Hughes used myth for the purpose of tragic writing; he tried to accommodate or expel some evil in the poetry making his characters symbolic and powerful.
One of the most prominent works written by Ted Hughes is considered to be the collection of poems called “Crow”. The author tried to create a notable collection with the involvement of Christian mythology. Nevertheless, this work is recognized as the first one through which the author tried to demonstrate his own extensive folk-mythology. Hughes managed to end up with a fallible God and stick to inadequate tasks of mythological embodiment.
As the protagonist of the book, a crow would become
symbolic in any author’s hands;
and a symbolic crow lives a legendary life. (Skea, 2)
Crow is considered to be a “dark night of the soul” shown by the author through the mythological description of the mysterious world unreached by humanity. For example, the work Wodwo (1967) demonstrates the atmosphere of ghosts and shadows where neither language nor light can practically escape. One of the central themes presented by the author is death; it is explained by Hughes’ wife Sylvia Plath’s suicide resulting in the author’s attempts to create Crow.
The elements of mythological style are considered to be especially centralized in the book; Hughes described Crow as a life force and the power embodiment. Such position introduced the author’s new way of thinking about myth. The process of Hughes works creation went through the author’s thorough study of world mythology; he tried to contribute to this sphere development and reflect in through poetic expression. He took into account all important elements such a language style, structures, and rhythms. It is important to stress that Hughes became mythically multicultural before his personal myths creation.
One of the most important aspects in Hughes’ writing is considered to be the usage of Irish myth. The author used to stick to Irish culture attracting him by its tragic and emotional complexity. He tried to relate his poems to Celtic Goddess, Morrigan and ‘Badbh’, battle goddess. It is important to underline the fact that the usage of non-Western mythology in personal poems made Hughes’ style combine the elements of High Modern and Orientalism.
Hughes’ mythic infrastructure can be analyzed on the example of one of his poems called ‘Two Legends’, Crow. The author managed to demonstrate stripped-down language introducing all the features characterizing his poems in the collection. Hughes used a number of repetitions making body parts be central images of the plot. His works are characterized by metaphor breakdown, Primitivism and mythological structuralism.
Black was the without eye,
Black the within tongue,
Black was the heart… (Hughes, Two Legends, 54)
The poem demonstrates the fact that Hughes avoided similes in order to stress the distance between central concepts and the real world. The words used by the author have the power of creation and destroy; he created a ‘black myth’ mirroring the mysterious nature and atmosphere of the basic theme.
Hughes’ myth is created in the Crow world where Christian love is considered to be meaningless. The poem ‘Snake Hymn’ discloses ironical death engendering through everlasting love.
The Blood in Eve’s Body
That slid from her womb –
Knotted on the cross it had no name. (Hughes, Snake Hymn, 25)
This work discloses the elements of Christianity through the crucifixion significance demonstration. Hughes reflected the demonism of Crow arguing that nature distrust of Christianity was centralized in the science of XVII century; the combination of materialism and Reformation Puritanism left a print on scientific and religious development as it was reflected by Hughes.
It is necessary to underline the fact that Ted Hughes’ works and vision give an opportunity to organize historical and mythic material having its own deep ‘meaning’. The author’s poetry allows finding explanations for suffering and the self-destructive behavior of humanity. His poem ‘Crow’s Account of the Battle’ underlines the cruelty of nature through nuclear holocausts, crunching mentality and destructive religious development.
The reality was given its lesson,
Its mishmash of scripture and physics
With here, brains in hands, for example,
And there, legs in a treetop. (Hughes, Crow’s Account of the Battle, 56)
Hughes tried to show that the only reason for people’s destruction and sufferings is the rejection of the Goddess. The author even demonstrates the interaction between the God and Crow concerning the problem of getting the souls into Adam and Eve’s souls; the deepness of the problem was illustrated through the following: ‘The problem was so great, that it dragged him asleep’ (Hughes, Childish Prank, 72). God was depicted as:
…much bigger than the other
Loving his enemies and having all the weapons. (Hughes, Crow’s Theology, 67)
Hughes’ poems were aimed at underlining the role of religion and goddess for humanity trying to show it through mythic interference.
Ted Hughes can be surely named a true mythmaker of his time; the analysis of his collection ‘Crow’ proves the author’s role in mythological formation; his works are filled with the combination of world mythology reflecting the elements of Hughes’ personal style. The “Crow” is a bright masterpiece which helped Hughes to show the real nature of the myth and stress the purpose of his own poetry.
Geoffrey Hill
Brief Biography
Geoffrey Hill is an outstanding English poet of XX century generally recognized for his individuality and uniqueness in writing style. Geoffrey Hill was a professor of religion and English literature which left a print on his career as a writer. The poet’s life was very saturated; Hill published his first poem in 1952, being only 20 years old. Making a literary and academic career the professor managed to be awarded Honorary of Keble College and the University of Leeds. It should be noted that Hill is a happy family man and a successful poet of his time. (Corcoran, 189)
Myth in Geoffrey Hill’s Works
Geoffrey Hill is referred to as the most prominent and unique poets of his period; his works are perceived as difficult ones as the author discloses the combination of modernism and rhetoric; he used to stick to national problematic social issues connected with historical and political events. He dedicated his works to the tragedies of the Holocaust and social discrimination; he tried to defend the poets’ rights by means of personal writings and backed the position of democratic freedom.
The analysis of the author’s poetry demonstrates the fact that mythology plays an integral part in the expression of his thoughts. One of the most significant works of the poet is considered to be “Mercian Hymns”, 1971. The principle purpose of the poetry volume is aimed at showing the present through historical events; the author wanted to make readers understand modern time by means of history perception.
Mythology is presented through rhythmical prose and expressive poetry disclosing poet’s personal experience in the past. Geoffrey presents the world of facts combining public and personal history in order to show present in the most adequate way. Myth plays the role of the history shaper; Hill tried to represent industrial labor as a part of the biblical sufferings of humanity experienced in the past. It should be noted that industrial destructive force appeared to perform central pressure on human freedom being linked to religious inner development within the society.
Brooding on the eightieth letter of Fors Clavigera,
I speak this in memory of my grandmother, whose
childhood and prime womanhood were spent in the
nailer’s darg. (Hill, V)
The role of grandmother mentioned in the lines was completely disfigured through industrial violations and pressures which centralized the meaning of technological progress rather than moral and religious reflection. (Longley, 153)
Hill’s poems interpretation is demonstrated by myth features created on the basis of the author’s studies of international cultures. It should be noted that Hill depicts himself as a part of Christian society having no reference to the history, rather than a member of the British nation. The basic aspect of the work is concentrated around the issue “Time past is time present”, stressing the role previous experience in future life building.
The Mercian Hymns are merely aimed at showing roots and endings of the history underlining the heritage of previous generations allowing the readers to feel and perceive that reality in the way he did. He describes personal ‘kingdom’ of the child in order to depict the atmosphere of the time through his world perception and vision.
I was invested in mother-earth,
the crypt of roots and endings. Child’s-play.
I abode there, bided my time:
Where the mole shouldered the clogged wheel,
his gold solidus; where dry dust badgers
thronged the Roman flues, the long-unlooked-for
mansions of our tribe. (Hill, 56)
The hymn reflects the atmosphere of fantasy and reality combined through author’s imaginative reality aimed at disclosure of war and instability. The work demonstrates a number of examples when a little boy, being hungry for adventures, starts living in a number of fantastic worlds with mythic creatures and events.
Then, in the earthy shelter, warmed by a blue-glassed
Storm-lantern, I huddled with stories of dragon-
tailed airships and warriors
who took wing immortal as phantoms. (Hill, 111)
Myth helps the author to represent the figurative sense of the work; every hymn is a historical meditation transferred from author’s consciousness.
All the poetry described in the Mercian Hymns is written in rhythmical prose form balancing relationships between real life and mythical elements. The analysis of Hill’s writings has shown that the author tried to identify the role of present time through the past perception.
So, Geoffrey Hill can be considered the myth maker of his time as he managed to introduce personal mythical elements in the poetry; his style of writing and manner of presentation is perceived as a difficult one because the author combined different epochs, histories, societies and realities. The description of the fantasy world through religious elements and the destructive power of the past made his works differ from all others and contribute to the mythological writings.
Comparative Overview
Ted Hughes and Geoffrey Hill managed to demonstrate incredible contribution to the world literature development being considered as true makers of myth of their period. The analysis of their works gives an opportunity to evaluate poet’s manner of writing, style and language of myth expression.
It should be noted that Ted Hughes’ Crow highlighted author’s desire to show deep sense through the mythical presentation; he covered the peculiarities of many great cultures focusing on Irish and Christianity mythology. His poetry appeared to make a collection of works about the dark world of darkness, human existence without faith and religion. The author created his own approaches of mysterious nature expression in order to explain the background of all the sufferings through myths to the readers.
The language demonstrated by Geoffrey Hill is complicated enough; the author used the form of rhythmical prose though some ideas are hidden under the sense of mythology and religious interference. The poet used repetitions of the paragraph for the purpose of making the emphasis to the points of mythological role. He tried to underline the place of inner mental development and religious involvement through the description of the destructive power of the past.
His main conception embodied in myths sense concerned the centralization of Christianity and church; he stated that “the English church is a church on the ground, engaged, suffering, not a metaphysical or high-church abstraction”. (Knottenbelt, 270) Reading his work “Mercian Hymns” one can hardly find the stress on the church, though Hill tried to show it on the examples of human actions in the atmosphere of industrialized pressure.
The themes disclosed by the two authors appeared to be similar because of the myth functions performed in them. They strived to show the influence of religious interference with human society’s future on the global level. The goddess was especially centralized and its absence meant constant living in the world of darkness and destruction. (Childs, 212)
Myth played a significant role in the authors’ literature; not in vain, they tried to stress mythological experience in other cultures and their personal contribution to this sphere. Mythmaking is considered to be one of the basic contributions made by the poets through their poetry collections; they gave an opportunity to evaluate the close connection between reality and the fantastic world of mythology embodied in true life. It is necessary to underline the importance of ironic devices presented in poetry which helps to perceive its sense as emotional and expressive work. The myth was the shaper of the poets’ style, theme, language, and rhythms allowing them to reflect personal world vision.
Poets, who used to reject the influence of myth, really rejected poetry itself because these two notions are closely connected with each other. It is important to stress that poetry is a thought of the intellect and only myth can contribute to its creation. Myth presented in poetry adds individuality to the author’s style and manner of presentation. The world of literature and mythology are two spheres that exist and function together.
The analysis of the poetry written by Ted Hughes and Geoffrey Hill gives an opportunity to evaluate the role of myth in their works and the level of their personal contribution to its creation. The authors presented myths as their soul’s experience switching to reality and their own imagination. “Crow” and “Mercian Hymns” appeared to perform the function of authors’ self-expression and realization of their world vision; the world of literature calls these poets mythmakers of their epoch as they managed to demonstrate the notes of personal mythology reflected by their mentality.
References
Corcoran, N. (2007). The Cambridge Companion to 20th century English poetry. Cambridge University Press.
Childs, P. (1999). The Twentieth Century in Poetry: A Critical Survey. Routledge.
Hughes, T. (1971). Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow. Harper and Row.
Knottenbelt, E. (1990). Passionate intelligence: The Poetry of Geoffrey Hill. Rodopi.
Longley, E. (2000). The Bloodaxe Book of 20th century Poetry from Britain and Ireland. Bloodaxe. Pp. 368.
Roberts, N. (2003). A Companion to Twentieth Century Poetry. Wiley-Blackwell.
Skea, Ann. (1998). Ted Hughes and Crow. Web.
West, Th. (1990). Ted Hughes. Taylor and Francis Publishing.