Song by Ted Hughes O lady, when the tipped cup of the You became soft fire with a cloud’ The difficult stars swam for eyes You stood, and your shadow was my You turned, your shadow turned to 3
To Paint a Water-Lily by Ted Hughes A green level of lily leaves Roofs the pond’s chamber and paves The flies’ furious arena: study These, the two minds of this lady. First observe the air’s dragonfly
The Minotaur by Ted Hughes The mahogany table-top you smashed Had been the broad plank top Of my mother’s heirloom sideboard— Mapped with the scars of my whole That came under the hammer.
The Drowned Woman by Ted Hughes Millionly-whored, without womb, Her heart already rubbish, Watching the garret death come, This thirty year old miss Walked in park pastoral 2
Lineage by Ted Hughes In the beginning was Scream Who begat Blood Who begat Eye Who begat Fear Who begat Wing
The Thought-Fox by Ted Hughes I imagine this midnight moment’s f Something else is alive Beside the clock’s loneliness And this blank page where my finge Through the window I see no star:
The Jaguar by Ted Hughes The apes yawn and adore their flea The parrots shriek as if they were Like cheap tarts to attract the st Fatigued with indolence, tiger and Lie still as the sun. The boa-con 1 3
Work and Play by Ted Hughes The swallow of summer, she toils a A blue—dark knot of glittering vol A whiplash swimmer, a fish of the But the serpent of cars that crawl In shimmering exhaust
Full Moon and Little Frieda by Ted Hughes A cool small evening shrunk to a d And you listening. A spider’s web, tense for the dew’ A pail lifted, still and brimming– To tempt a first star to a tremor.
Bawdry Embraced by Ted Hughes Great farmy whores, breasts bouncy Like buttocks, and with buttocks l Two white sows jammed in a sty doo Are no dunghills for bawdry’s cock Nor tigery tarts, with rubber back