An exhumation : poetry of Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes: disinterred ancient texts

TL;DRAbstract

Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes are major English language poets who, like others, disinter the bones of ancient texts and reclothe them in living flesh. This thesis argues that the poems discussed, which were published in the last decade of the twentieth century, expose and explore themes and ideas that have determined human action from ancient to modern times. Heaney, who is Irish and has an English publisher, is installed at the centre of the Anglo-American literary canon. Conversely, apart from Birthday Letters which offer segments of his relationship with Sylvia Plath, Hughes is largely ignored by American critics. In dealing with Hughes’ last long poems, this thesis fills a gap in the critical literature. Examination reveals Hughes’ work to be as powerful, disturbing, appealing and pertinent for modern readers as Heaney’s. The focus of the study is a detailed analysis of the poetry’s power in a 1990s context of war, oppression and intermittent peace. Basic to the analysis is Heaney’

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