#232: Ted Hughes in Alaska

An episode from 6/22/26: Tonight, we hear about the British poet Ted Hughes (1930-1998), and the poem he said he spent the most time on, “The Gulkana.” The poem is named after a river in Alaska, and in this episode, I preface a reading of the poem with excerpts from his letters and biography about Hughes’ love for the outdoors and for fishing. In particular, in the last two decades of his life, Hughes found great solace and intensity visiting his son, Nicholas, a marine biologist, who was then living in Alaska. Only after this introduction do I read “The Gulkana” in full, as well as the poem “That Morning.”

Both poems come from his 1983 collection, River; the letters come from those he wrote to the critic and friend Keith Sagar, as well as The Letters of Ted Hughes; the biography I read from is by Jonathan Bate. The other episodes I’ve done on Hughes’ life and poetry can be found here.

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Email me at humanvoiceswakeus1@gmail.com.