The Narrative of Grief in Ted Hughes's Crow

Ted Hughes considered his Crow poems, first published in 1970, to be his masterpiece, and many of his critics have agreed. However, critical interpretations of these poems have tended to neglect the narrative framework Hughes had in mind for them (but never published). They have also overlooked how the grief Hughes felt at the suicide of his wife, Sylvia Plath, helped shape this narrative. Understood in these contexts of an overarching narrative and Hughes's grief, the Crow poems can be read as Bildung, a story of formation and maturation, in which Hughes and his eponymous character Crow begin to learn how to cope with mortality, trauma, and the universe's indifference.