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Could anyone post Ted Hughes' "The Day He Died" please?

14 replies

Cadelaide · 17/05/2009 15:01

I'd be so grateful, I can't seem to track it down online.

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northernrefugee39 · 17/05/2009 16:38

Sorry, I don't know that one. All I can think of is Audens' Stop all the Clocks"

Cadelaide · 17/05/2009 22:18

Thanks northern.

It's definitely out there but I can't find my copy and it's proving elusive online, I'm bumping for you evening lot.

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Cadelaide · 17/05/2009 22:37

Oh come on you lot. Get away from that thread with the nutty "feminist" and help me out here

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MaryBS · 17/05/2009 22:40

Its not listed on here, I've used this website before for poems:

www.poemhunter.com/ted-hughes

Cadelaide · 17/05/2009 22:43

Ooh, thanks for the excellent link anyway Mary, I'm sure to use that site in the future.

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thisisyesterday · 17/05/2009 22:43

hehe i have found references to it, but can't find a copy of it online.

PlumpRumpSoggyBaps · 17/05/2009 22:49

Here you are:

Was the silkiest day of the young year,
The first reconnaissance of the real spring,
The first confidence of the sun.

That was yesterday. Last night, frost.
And as hard as any of all winter.
Mars and Saturn and the Moon dangling in a bunch
On the hard, littered sky.
Today is Valentine's day.

Earth toast-crisp. The snowdrops battered.
Thrushes spluttering. Pigeons gingerly
Rubbing their voices together, in singing cold.
Crows creaking, and clumsily
Cracking loose.

Their bright fields look dazed.
Their expression is changed.
They have been somewhere awful
And come back without him.

The trustful cattle, with frost on their backs,
Waiting for hay, waiting for warmth,
Stand in a new emptiness.

From now on the land
Will have to manage without him.
But it hesitates, in this slow realisation of light,
Childlike, too naked, in a frail sun,
With roots cut
And a great blank in its memory.

Cadelaide · 17/05/2009 22:51

Oh, it's so beautiful.

Thanks ever so, ever so much PlumpRump.

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elkiedee · 17/05/2009 22:54

Did you see the programme this week in which it was read out?

Cadelaide · 17/05/2009 22:59

No elkie, bet that was good. Was it him, do you know?

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elkiedee · 17/05/2009 23:02

I don't think it was him reading it if that's what you mean. BBC4 are showing a huge number of poetry programmes. Wish they'd spread them out a bit actually, It all looked fascinating but I couldn't really watch from 7 till 1 am without stopping, and my V+ box (similar to Sky Plus but the Virgin cable version) is totally crammed already.

PlumpRumpSoggyBaps · 17/05/2009 23:05

I just knew that poncey Oxford Library of Poetry would come in useful one day!!

Cadelaide · 17/05/2009 23:06
Grin
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RaggedRobin · 18/05/2009 23:24

i think it was seamus heaney who read it. it was an excellent programme.

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