HUGHES, Ted. A March Calf. London: Faber and Faber. 1995.
8vo. Green paper card wrappers with illustration of a calf to front wrapper; fine.
First edition beautifully inscribed to Nick Grant accompanied by a unique short poem; "For Nick/Glimpses of Paradise/and the hell to be/seen through the cracks/in the floor of it/love Ted/1st October 1995".
"To get into life/ Mosquito died many deaths" (Mosquito). A March Calf is Volume 3 of Ted Hughes' Collected Animal Poems series, a collection appropriate for an adult readership. "Right from the start- he is dressed in his best- his blacks/ and his whites". begins the title poem of Hughes' assortment of animal life. Just as Hughes imaginatively examines the lives of animals, he is from the very beginning drawing illuminating parallels with the human condition. "To be free on the surface of such wideness,/To find himself. To stand. To moo.". The title poem concludes with the notion that we should find similar vitality in simple existence as our 'beastly' counterparts, creatures which he transforms into all too familiar characters.
#2121077