The Poetic Imagination of Ted Hughes: A Critical Analysis of Children's Engagement with Poetry

Abstract

While Ted Hughes's poetry celebrates nature's vibrant beauty, it also confronts its stark brutality. This ambivalent landscape deeply affects children in his work, a dimension often overlooked in the literature on Hughes. Drawing on ecocriticism and psychoanalytic theory, this article examines four facets of the complex engagement: wonder and terror, loss and disconnection, responsibility and action, and the transformative power of imagination. Through close textual analysis of poems selected from his poetry collections, the article presents how Hughes employs imagery and symbolism to depict children's emotional and ethical navigation of this fraught Eden. This reading challenges simplistic notions of nature as either benevolent or hostile, revealing its influence on children’s sense of self or their capacity to care for the environment. Thus, Hughes offers a unique lens through which to understand children's literature and environmentalism, urging his readers and nature environmentalists to re-examine their own relationship with the natural world. The article concludes with pedagogical suggestions for using Hughes's poetry in fostering environmental education and stewardship.