This is the second of two podcasts recorded with Dr. Mike Sweeting on the topic of Ted Hughes's relationship with religion - specifically Christianity. Mike concludes his observations with his thoughts on how some of Ted Hughes's later work - particularly some of the poems included in Birthday Letters, the last collection published in his lifetime - indicate a change of attitude on Hughes's part: a willingness to acknowledge the suffering he has caused others as well as the suffering he has experienced; an aparent willingness to make amends; and a tendency towards elegy and lamentation.

Works mentioned in the podcast:

'Crow blacker than ever' from Crow: from the life and songs of the Crow (2020) with an introduction by Marina Warner. London: Faber & Faber.

'The Shot' from Birthday Letters (1998) London: Faber & Faber.

'October Salmon' from River (1983) with photographs by Peter Keen. London: Faber & Faber.

'The Strand at Lough Beg' from 100 Poems (2018) London: Faber & Faber.

For listeners who would like to read further about Ted Hughes and religion, Dr Ann Skea writes:

'Among the loose pages in the British Library file Add Ms 88918/9/9, there are several which record Hughes' pondering on his difficulties in keeping his "large multiple front operations fully operational"; and his need to make "more serious moves" if he is "truly intended to make a close communion with the divinity". He examines what he means by 'the will'; paraphrases Kirekegard's comments about the difference between "worshippers who merely imagine their relationship with the divinity and those who undergo it as a transforming experience"; and writes revealingly of his own relationship with religion and religions.

I would also reccomend Dr Krishnendu Gupta's article in vol. 8 issue 1 of The Ted Hughes Society Journal (http://thetedhughessociety.org/the-ted-hughes-society-journal-open-access) and David Troups's book length study Ted Hughes and Christianity (2019) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The opening and closing music is from String Quartet No 14, opus 131, oerfomed by the Orion String Quartet. (The extract is reproduced under Creative Commons licence IMSLP: Creative Commons Atribution Non-commercial No Derivative 3.0.)

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