Why Do Composers Compose? Ted Hughes
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Why do composers compose? Throughout the ages there has always been composers, whether it is an Aboriginal carving thousands of years old or a 21st century movie. In all circumstances we, the audience, have to ask ourselves, what is their purpose? What exactly was the composers vision? Were they looking to tell a fictional story, attempting to convince the audience of something or simply to present what they consider factual information?
I will be talking about three texts and discussing how and for what purpose the composers visions and versions were created.
The first text is Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes. Birthday Letters is a collection of poems which illustrate the events of Hughes and, of his late wife, Sylvia Plaths live having moved into a public forum and becoming the interest of outsiders. It provides an opportunity for us to explore how different perspectives on one situation can be considered. From reading Birthday Letters it seems that one of Hughes intentions was to present the audience with an array of perspectives which can be believed. He allows no clear-cut answer to be drawn from his poetry and changes his own perspectives throughout Birthday Letters thus influencing the audience to realize the amount of perspectives there could be on any given topic. The two poems that I will be discussing will be Fulbright Scholars and Red.
The first poem in Hughes collection is Fulbright Scholars; it immediately gives the reader more then one perspective with a younger and older Hughes. By openly creating these two selves it shows Hughes creation of a persona, a different self in the poems, which he uses throughout Birthday Letters to show his version of events and also his perspective on the situation. Fulbright scholars, begins with a question: “Where was it, in the Strand?” this immediately provides the reader with an understanding about Hughes, and his memories. The reader is introduced to Hughes uncertainty, and fragmented memories. The poem is set in first-person monologue although appears to be an intimate conversation between himself and Plath; this technique is useful in convincing the audience of Hughes honesty. The sense of uncertainty that riddles many of the poems in Birthday Letters is omnipresent in Fulbright Scholars. Hughes constantly employs the use of questions to show this uncertainty. The reader believes that Hughes is uncertain about his past with Plath and that his memories are questionable. This may be considered as a means of forgetting his past and the one whom he may or may not have ended up with, from all the Fulbright scholars. It could also be an attempt to convince the viewer that his history with Plath is complicated and disjointed. This notion is further expounded through the fact that he cant even remember what she looked like: “Not your face.” This creates a sense of trying to forget her. His lack of certainty assorted with his specific certainty in other parts, “I remember that thought”, creates the sense that he is attempting to gain an insight and remember what they had as well as their life together. Fulbright Scholars develops the idea that Birthday Letters is personal experience, a look into the private and personal history of Hughes and Plath as a couple.
Red is the final poem in the collection Birthday Letters. Consequently it can be read as a correspondence to the poem Fulbright Scholars. That is, the poem is written about the final result of the relationship, a poem that is instinctual in its intensity and directness. This is a poem not about uncertain beginnings but absolutely certain ends. As the title Red suggests colour is of profound importance in the poem. The poet relies upon our reaction to particular colours to generate the emotional effect he requires. The poem opens with a clear statement that allows no contradiction, “Red was your colour”. However, this is immediately modified. “If not red, then white”. Hughes expectation for his audience to see uncertainty here and yet he offers only two perspectives that cannot be argued as inevitably Plath is not there to ask. Hughes is not suggesting that she liked these colours or that she associated these colours with herself, only that he associated her with these colours. This displays how this is a poem about his reaction and therefore his perspective although at times it seems that he wants his audience to believe that he is discussing multiple perspectives. The significance of red is that it is seen as the colour of passion or anger. It is also possible to see red in many other ways, which helps add to the poems depth and complexity. This is a poem that is capable of many meanings and therefore many conflicting perspectives. Hughes chooses to see red as essentially a violent and dangerous colour. The poem becomes almost repetitious in its imagery. Red becomes “Blood-red”, not a symbol of the life affirming properties of blood but rather its life ending properties. The poem opens with a sense of death and the funereal, of the immortalizing of “The precious heirloom bones, the family bones.” Hughes seems aware of his role in this process of immortalisation, the poem itself preserving his dead wife. This seems to make the poem about preserving a particular memory, Hughes impression of Plath. The violence is apparent in the poem with blood lobbing from the gash. As well as white and red Hughes includes blue in the poem. It can be seen, traditionally as a symbol of peace. Perhaps Hughes is suggesting