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Summary: Book shows how personal expreriences effect poetry
Review: I cried when I started to read "Birthday Letters" by Ted Hughes. Having studied both Plath's poetry and novels such as "The Bell Jar" I emphasised with the life that Hughes was writing about. Through his painful and traumatic experiences expressed in his powerful and evocative language, great insight into the human mind was revealed.
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Summary: Taking another look
Review: I have done extensive research on Sylvia Plath. I never saw her as the poor, defenseless victim many feminists portray her as, but reading about her struggles with Ted Hughes did not make him my favorite person. Reading "Birthday Letters" was quite a shock for me. The powerful emotions of grief, sorrow, and tenderness cast Mr. Hughes in a new light. I felt almost as if I were intruding on an intimate moment between him and his late wife. I was captivated by this work, but I feel knowledge of his history with Plath is essential for a full understanding of the work.
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Summary: Love after death
Review: I have never really believed that love ends after death and this collection of poems proves my point. With honest emotion, each poem gives the reader a special vantage point into Hughes/Platt's relationship. For anyone who has ever loved with their whole soul...this book is a necessary addition to their collection.
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Summary: Beautiful
Review: I have read countless books about the life and works of Sylvia Plath, and in doing so, have attempted to uncover whatever real truths exist about the love affair between Sylvia and Ted. I think this book of gorgeous narrative poems is testimony that often, there is no 'simple answer' or 'person to blame' in a relationship that has failed. It is also testimony to Hughes's undying, colossal love for his former wife, however he may have wrecked it in their youth. It is a beautiful and moving read, particularly if you have read some background material beforehand. All his subtle references take on a much deeper meaning when one knows the details behind them, and the details according to Sylvia. The poetry is lush and shimmers with a sincere, burning love for a troubled woman who left us much too soon.
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Summary: Shameful
Review: I have studied the life of Sylvia Plath, the unfortunate ex-wife of Ted Hughes, and I find it shameful that after so many years, and after personally censuring so much of Sylvia's writings, writings that might have shed light upon his contribution to her suicide, that he could profit so on "tributes" to her work. It was not only his affair with his secretary, who likewise killed herself, but his egocentric dominance over her life and even upon the subject matter of her poetry. When she was "free" of her marriage, her true genius emerged, albeit along with her final desperate act. I do not criticize his poetry per se, though I always felt he must have felt a bit inferior to his wife, I simply think Sylvia deserves the respect of Ted Hughes silence.
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Summary: who knows
Review: I read the Birthday Letters like a novel rather than poetry, I couldn't put the book down. I have never subscribed to the Ted Hughes as monster views of some feminists, having read some of the work of Sylvia Plath and some biographies I found this book profoundly moving. To me the poems are full of love, passion, tenderness and regret. The book as a whole confirms that none of us really know what goes on in other peoples relationships and that it is all too easy to sit in judgement. This collection of poems offers us a little insight into the torment of living with and loving a deeply troubled human being.
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Summary: Forget the who's and why's - read for the poetry alone
Review: I was looking for some insight into Plath. What I found was poetry so honest it took my breath away. Forget who the author is; forget his long-dead wife. Read these poems for the sheer joy of the words. Hughes has finally been able to capture emotion, capture first love and youth and innocence. In a style straight-forward and honest, these poems will appeal to anyone who has been in love, who has been in the ups and downs of a relationship, who tries to understand things in retrospect. This is poetry at its finest.
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Summary: A great poet sells out to the Ted & Sylvia Show
Review: I'm as great an admirer of Ted Hughes' poetry as I am of Sylvia Plath's. Indeed, if I had been forced to pick which half of that couple I thought seemed the writer whose work will prove more durable, powerful, apt to become universal by rising through time, it would have been Hughes. Maybe it still is, if I'm allowed to except the most recent book, which reads like journal entries (though not quite as honest) cut up to look like poems. I have forgiven Hughes his occasionally churlish end-notes in his otherwise excellent edition of Plath's collected poems. I can certainly forgive him for wanting to tell some of the unheard stories of his chilling marriage with Plath before he too succumbed to death. But it pains me to see the poet of CROW and the unsparing, original, steely poems that followed CROW set his name to this third-rate stuff--slack in diction and rhythm, wordy with Britishisms far in excess of what would be needed to create a "conversational" tone, dependent on extrinsic biographical information for what impact they have. (Yes, I clicked on three stars. Ted Hughes' third rate is better than many publishing poets' first rate.)
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Summary: Ted writes beautifully about Sylvia
Review: My boyfriend gave me this book for Valentines Day. Short of a romantic gift, it is one of the books that I cherish the most. Ted writes about Sylvia not only as a poet, but as a wife, a lover, and a mother. At first I thought it was just going to be all about his life after her death, well, its not. He shows intimate scenes of their relationship: i.e. their wedding day, vacations et cetra. Its completely hauntign and eerie, especially for someone like me who has read so much of her poetry/literature and already feels like they know her. Its well written, its forceful but quiet, subtle but abrasive. It is by far one of the best books I have ever, EVER read.
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Summary: "Birthday Letters" and the contradiction of Hughes
Review: Simply put, "Birthday Letters" is not Ted Hughes's best work. It contains some moving poetry, particularly "Life after Death," but overall it is lax and digressive both in form and in content. Many of the poems assume the titles of Plath's own work, but instead of illuminating her, they merely reiterate familiar images. "Birthday Letters" also exposes a contradiction inherent in Hughes himself: while in many of the poems he seems to abrognate responsibility for his wife's suicide by subscribing to the belief that, in a sense, Sylvia was doomed from the start. In his translation of Alcestis, one senses that the character of Admetos is one with whom Hughes identifies: Look what you did: you let her die instead. You live now Only because you let Death take her. You killed her. Point-blank She met the death that you dodged... "Birthday Letters" should not be read biographically, for it is art, not a memoir of Plath or their marriage. To obtain a deeper understanding of Hughes and his marriage, one should read the visionary poetry of Alcestis and Hughes's masterpiece, Crow.
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