The Poet As A Rebel
...to emerge since World War II. He is a versatile poet who is best known for his wildness, his unique point of view to the role of a poet just like a shaman and his powerful poems that feature violent and bloody themes, symbolic and mythical images, bold metaphors and resonant language. Though he is a major Post Movement poet, he is often presented as the great rebel against the movement cause.
Hughes Himself
Hughes, as a man and as a poet, frequently does not conform to the conventions which society expects of him. Having grown up in a working-class background, Hughes left High School with a scholarship to Cambridge University, where the literary set came mostly from the upper-class. He quickly established a reputation for being rather wild, and someone who was at Cambridge when Hughes was there commented that for a while there was some question as to whether it would be Hughes or Cambridge which would survive the experience.
Physically, Hughes is tall and dark. He likes to wear black clothing, and he is often careless of his appearance. One critic has called him “Heathcliff”. Another described him as “The Incredible Hulk of English literature” (Feinstein 43).
The Role of the Poet
Hughes has some very definite ideas about poetry and its functions, and about his own role as a poet. Hughes believes that poetry is a magical and powerful way of reaching our feelings and emotions—our subconscious, natural energies. He believes that these energies have been repressed by an emphasis on the scientific approach to life and teaching. We are taught he says, that emotions are dangerous, can distort our judgment, should not be relied upon when we have decisions to make, and that they have nothing to do with truth.
He suggests that the poet can be a reunifying source by employing such creative energies as imagination and emotion, as well as rationalization, to probe...
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