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The Hawk in the Rain: Poems Paperback – January 1, 1968

by Ted Hughes (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 84 ratings
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Originally published in 1957, Hawk in the Rain was the first collection of poems by Ted Hughes. The book won the New York Poetry Center First Publication Award, for which the judges were W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, and Marianne Moore; it also won the Somerset Maugham Award. Indeed, Hawk in the Rain was acclaimed by every reviewer from A. Alvarez to Edwin Muir, and in its pages we can still see the promising brilliance of one of the most important English-speaking poets of the modern age.
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  1. Print length
    60 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Faber & Faber
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 1968
  5. Dimensions
    5 x 0.25 x 7.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0571086144
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0571086146
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"All looking for the emergence of a major poet must buy [this book]." --Robin Skelton

About the Author

The British poet, translator, author, and critic Ted Hughes, born in 1930, wrote more than forty books, including, in the last decade of his life, Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being; Tales from Ovid; verse adaptations of Aeschylus's Oresteia, Racine's Phèdre, and Euripedes' Alcestis; and the bestselling Birthday Letters. Hughes served as Poet Laureate to Queen Elizabeth II from 1984 until his death in 1998.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Faber & Faber (January 1, 1968)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 60 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0571086144
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0571086146
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.17 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.25 x 7.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 84 ratings

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Ted Hughes

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
84 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Philip Eliot
5.0 out of 5 stars INCREDIBLE first book by one of the great voices of 20th century poetry
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2020
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Here is a 20-something Ted Hughes already soaring the heights of genius; the poems already decadently drooling with his trademarked Welsh diction; and the vocabulary and subject matter already outlining the footprint of what would become Hughes' wheelhouse. This is the poet that Sylvia Plath fell in love with; it's easy to see why. Criticisms that the poetry is 'gruff' or 'violent' miss the point of Hughes' poetic voice entirely; and those that insist on lumping him together with, or comparing him with, Plath seem to forget he edited, assembled, pitched, and published Ariel and that she'd have died essentially voiceless (a smattering of poems published when she was still alive would scarcely be remembered) were it not for the suite of skills he deployed to keep her voice alive. The sole steward of her posthumous career, if you've even heard of Plath, it's him to thank for it. Back to this book - it's fantastic. The poems are so strong and so vivid that they're essential reading for that reason alone; they're also visceral and "earth poems" - Hughes is a poet of nature. Of the elements, and animals, and ruthlessly Darwinian blood pulse that lords over (all) both... highly recommend this slim book. Specifically the hard cover version - it's reprinted in the same size and format as the original (not a reprint but a reimagination) and at about the size of a kindle (and half the weight) it travels well. Just don't expect to breeze through it... I read one poem every few days and let them sink in... re-read them, then read them again... before moving on. The poems are savory like that.
3 people found this helpful
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Stanley Crowe
5.0 out of 5 stars strong stuff by the young Hughes
Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2013
Ted Hughes, at age 27, made a powerful impression with his first book of poems, cutting against a tendency to the "genteel" that even in 1957 was a kind of hangover from Georgian verse. (Larkin's turn against that tendency was no less impressive, but very different). Hughes's interest in nature, and his clear sighted vision of the violence in it, are powerfully manifest here. There's even, in a poem like "The Thought-Fox," the suggestion that the ferally natural is part of us, even of our inner and supposedly "intellectual" lives. The poems that focus on natural creatures outside the self -- like the title poem and "The Horses" -- have a cosmic reach, as if the energies that drive the world are manifest everywhere -- in rain, storm, sunrise, even in the stillness of the horses (as much as the pacing of the jaguar in another poem). In human terms, the capacity for violent aggrandizement is well-caught in "The Dove Breeder." More poignant are "Griefs for Dead Soldiers" and "Six Young Men" -- poems that hark back to World War 1, the war in the shadow of which Hughes was a child in the 1930's. The poems that focus on human relationships are, not surprisingly, about tensions and struggles. All in all, it's not comfortable poetry -- this isn't Wordsworth's Nature, but it has affinities to Hopkins in its energy and to Coleridge in its visionary power. "Famous Poet" could be a sardonic take on "Kubla Khan." The writing is powerful and original -- there's nothing second-hand or formulaic about it. You don't have to like it, but you should engage it if you're at all interested in what poetry is capable of.
5 people found this helpful
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Judy Croome
3.0 out of 5 stars A good debut collection
Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2015
As a debut collection, and the first poems I've read written by Ted Hughes, my enjoyment of the poems was erratic. Some poems were brilliant as they stood ("Song"; "Incompatibilities"; "Law in the Country of Cats" and "The Martyrdom of Bishop Farrar"); others appeared to have less emotion and more intellect, which made them somewhat obscure to me. I felt a flavour of TS Eliot in these poems when first dipping into the volume, and wasn't surprised by the interesting tidbit in the front of the book, which included a copy of TS Eliot's response to Faber & Faber's Charles Montieth's enquiry about Hughes. (The edition I read is not the one listed here, but ISBN 978-0-571-32281-7)

Overall, the poems were too bleak, violent and obviously carefully composed for me to be swept away by them. However, as a debut collection the poems did enough to make me want to read more of Ted Hughes work as he became a mature, more experienced poet.
2 people found this helpful
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JPH
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book
Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2000
This book should not be out of print. Besides his more recent translations (interpretations) of greek and latin texts and the recent collection "Birthday Letters," this may be Hughes' best work. It was his first volume published, and while volumes to follow, such as "Crow" and "Gaudette," descended into a fabricated landscape, this volume derives it's subject matter powerfully and beautifully from, primarily, the natural world. Hughes' renown as a depictor of the natural world is made evident as deserved here more than any other volume he produced. As the first publised work of a masterful and recently deceased poet, this work should still be in print. Find it if you can.
13 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Cat Turner
5.0 out of 5 stars Suprising
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 6, 2021
Verified Purchase
Slightly surprised by the number of album tracks but the ten to fifteen canonical poems cement this collection as one of British poetry’s most important
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Lee
5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 23, 2021
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I read the Iron Man as a child... but it didn't prepare me for this magnificent collection if poems. Wonderful!
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Zen Raven
3.0 out of 5 stars ... in the Rain' collection is revered as among his best work, by far my favourite collection of Hughes ...
Reviewed in Canada on April 25, 2015
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Although the 'Hawk in the Rain' collection is revered as among his best work, by far my favourite collection of Hughes poems is 'Crow: From the life and songs of the Crow."
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Teresa
4.0 out of 5 stars Good
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 31, 2020
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Lovely book, came in perfect condition
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DungBeetle
5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 14, 2015
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Ted Hughes started his poetry career as a Master...and just kept improving...despite the desperate attempts of extreme feminist groups to blacken his name...quality will out...a great book of poetry from a man who became our greatest ever poet laureate.
3 people found this helpful
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