This multi-award winning collection, the first from Ted Hughes, has at its heart the mixture of beauty and violence in the natural world. The Hawk in the Rain is a stunning collection of poems on the themes of competition and the struggle for survival. Hughes would go on to become Britain’s Poet Laureate in 1984 until his death in 1998. Including many of Hughes’ best-known poems, such as ‘The Jaguar’, ‘The Thought-Fox’ and ‘Wind’ – now staples of British poetry anthologies – The Hawk in the Rain is the foundation of Hughes’ reputation as one of the twentieth-century’s greatest poets.

TED HUGHES

Ted Hughes (1930-1998) was born in Yorkshire. His first book, The Hawk in the Rain, was published in 1957 by Faber & Faber and was followed by many volumes of poetry and prose for adults and children. He received the Whitbread Book of the Year for two consecutive years for his last published collections of poetry, Tales from Ovid and Birthday Letters. He was Poet Laureate from 1984, and in 1998 he was appointed to the Order of Merit.