The Problem of the Evil of Self-Consciousness

Ted Hughes's poetry hints at modern man's self-division and subsequent alienation from nature and consciously aims to integrate man with nature. His poetry concerns itself with modern man's problem of sense of superfluity. As a poet Hughes's traditional trait is chiefly that of an inspired visionary. His major poetic preoccupations are: nature and myth. He is obsessed with animals, animal energies and the darks, mysterious forces that are latently embodied in natural world. A critical study of some of his best 'animal' poems conveys his concept of the primal energies of the natural world that stress the absolute otherness of that world and the relationship between these energies and the divided nature of man. His celebration of animal life, in a way, reflects the affirmation of all life. He is anti-rationalist and yet an agnostic. He argues that puritanical repression has alienated man from his natural instincts and laments that modern man, in the present cultural crisis, has lost his moorings and bearings in nature.