Thanks for this post and the poems. Truly, one of the great benefits of literature is as a mirror showing ourselves what we felt and feel at different stages of our life.
For me, reading the Gunn poem was a relief after the savage imagery of Hughes.
The poems feel like two sides of the same coin to me, although different in style and form they represent a relationship but with wildly different experiences and emotions. They co exist beautifully together, they feel like markers of time representing youthfulness and maturity and how we evolve in time with our relationships.
Love this Emma! 😊 And my experience exactly, although I must confess the Hughes one I find pretty unsettling now though there was a time in my youthful exuberance that this was the type of relationship I definitely aspired to!
Have you read her poem ‘You’re’ that I shared early on in the poetry curation series? I love that one. And there are definitely softer ones of her’s out there ✨ I feel exactly the same though, particularly with Ted Hughes. I can’t believe how much I used to love his work but really struggle to read a lot of it now -- Birthday Letters is wonderful though. Have you read that one?
Thanks for this post and the poems. Truly, one of the great benefits of literature is as a mirror showing ourselves what we felt and feel at different stages of our life.
For me, reading the Gunn poem was a relief after the savage imagery of Hughes.
robertsdavidn.substack.com/about (free)
Totally David! I find the Hughes’ one almost disturbing now though I used to revere it!!
The poems feel like two sides of the same coin to me, although different in style and form they represent a relationship but with wildly different experiences and emotions. They co exist beautifully together, they feel like markers of time representing youthfulness and maturity and how we evolve in time with our relationships.
Love this Emma! 😊 And my experience exactly, although I must confess the Hughes one I find pretty unsettling now though there was a time in my youthful exuberance that this was the type of relationship I definitely aspired to!
I would agree, it’s interesting how our aspirations change with hindsight and how as we mature we see and aspire different things.
Thanks Cate 🙏🏼
Have you read her poem ‘You’re’ that I shared early on in the poetry curation series? I love that one. And there are definitely softer ones of her’s out there ✨ I feel exactly the same though, particularly with Ted Hughes. I can’t believe how much I used to love his work but really struggle to read a lot of it now -- Birthday Letters is wonderful though. Have you read that one?