Hughes wrote "Song" when he was only nineteen, which means that it's one of his earliest poems. The poem shows Hughes's longstanding interest in mythology and ancient depictions of goddesses (he studied archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge). Similar to ancient Greek poetry, "Song" is a kind of invocation to a goddess-like "lady" or muse. Hughes uses this muse to explore the uncertain and mercurial nature of artistic inspiration and the writing life, and the power that writing holds over him. The speaker says, "The difficult stars swam for eyes in your face; / You stood, and your shadow was my place: / You turned, your shadow turned to ice O my lady." Like "difficult stars" or a shadow that can quickly turn to ice, a writer's inspiration is depicted as a strange and hard-to-grasp phenomenon. The lines "You were a marble of foam, but dumb. / When will the stone open its tomb? / When will the waves give over their foam?" describe the beautiful, intoxicating, and yet maddening and inaccessible nature of writing and artistic inspiration.
The poem's lady could also represent the fickle and passionate nature of romantic relationships. The poem's final lines, "And my head, worn out with love, at rest / In my hands, and my hands full of dust, O my lady," leave us with images of emptiness and fatigue. These lines work for both interpretations of the poem--the lady as muse or as romantic lover. The poem's speaker is left with a worn-out head and "hands full of dust," just as an artist and a lover are left alone with their grief when their lady leaves.
This poem is also a strong representation of Hughes's style. While most other poets of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s wrote in styles rooted in the modern, Hughes's style often bordered on the Shakespearean in tone and language. Many critics dismissed "Song" as overwrought. However, the poem still features classic imagery that represents a dramatic departure from the work of other poets during this time.
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