Rácz, IstvánD. (1991). "The Realm Between Life and Death in Ted Hughes". Hungarian Studies in English. 22: 121–126. ISSN 1217-0283. JSTOR 41273855.

British poet Ted Hughes with full name Edward James Hughes served as poet laureate from 1984 to 1998; people note his work for its symbolism, passion, and dark natural imagery. Guardian, October 30, 1998, Katharine Viner and others, "Beneath the Passion, a Life Plagued by Demons," p. 4. Line seven is unusual insofar as it is the only line that uses the first person, but it is unclear whether the “me” refers to Crow or some other figure. The rhetorical question serves as a challenge against religion, as it seemingly doubts the existence of a higher power. The use of the pronoun “somebody” creates a sense of ambiguity as it does not refer to a specific deity, and it also undermines the power of the person it refers to by using such ordinary language.Here is another great Hughes poem about a bird of prey, in the same tradition as his Crow sequence of poems. The hawk is the speaker of this poem, declaring his dominion over the world and asserting that just as he has always been in charge, so he will remain the mighty creature he is, the pinnacle of Creation. In the years soon after [Plath's] death, when scholars approached me, I tried to take their apparently serious concern for the truth about Sylvia Plath seriously. But I learned my lesson early... If I tried too hard to tell them exactly how something happened, in the hope of correcting some fantasy, I was quite likely to be accused of trying to suppress Free Speech. In general, my refusal to have anything to do with the Plath Fantasia has been regarded as an attempt to suppress Free Speech... The Fantasia about Sylvia Plath is more needed than the facts. Where that leaves respect for the truth of her life (and of mine), or for her memory, or for the literary tradition, I do not know. [35] [41] The use of the word “always” further likens Crow to Sisyphus, who was cursed to push a boulder up a mountain every day, only for it to roll down again so he could do it again. This story was the inspiration for Albert Camus to write The Myth of Sisyphus, which is the foundational text of Absurdism. Like Sisyphus, Crow is engaged in a task that yields nothing, and yet he continues to do it again and again because the alternative frightens him. Modern Poetry in Translation 50th Anniversary Study Day – Cambridge". Polish Cultural Institute . Retrieved 3 April 2016.

The book began as a series of 'talks' that Hughes wrote, and read, for the BBC Schools Broadcasting radio series "Listening and Writing". The five surviving programmes, 'Capturing Animals', 'Moon Creatures', 'Learning to Think', 'Writing about Landscape' and 'Meet my Folks!' are available on the BBC British Library CD: "Ted Hughes: Poetry in the Making". The Spoken Word. British Library. 2008. ISBN 978-0-7123-0554-9 Ted Hughes’ 1970 collection, Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow, remains his most celebrated contribution to 20th-century poetry. Drawing on mythology, philosophy and theology, as well as Hughes’ own sense of humour, the collection functions as a challenge to Christian belief. For some critics, notably Keith Sagar, Crowis the abortion of a great work, and has been misinterpreted, mainly because, as the first edition stated, The Life and Songs of the Crowcovers only the first two thirds of Crow’s journey, bringing him to his lowest point, whereas the narrative had been designed to conclude with Crow’s triumphant marriage to his Creator. [2]However, it is arguable that the published book owes much of its success to its unfinished, undecidable and provocative character. Crow cannot die, his suffering which is only briefly drowned out by his laughter can’t die and it seems has no purpose. There’s no comfort to be had. Another important element is the way the Crow is presented. The Crow is not described as being an evil creature, but rather someone who can’t control their actions. The Crow feels remorse looking at the damage it has caused but at the same time it knows there is nothing it can do to make things better and to fix them.

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The thought of defeating the sun echoes the story of Satan. In this poem, Sun is a symbol of God. Like Satan, the crow defied the limits and tried to be as powerful as the sun. It gradually led to his downfall like the fate of fallen angels in the Bible. And translator, with Assia Gutmann) Yehuda Amichai, Selected Poems, Cape Goliard Press (London, England), 1968, revised edition published as Poems, Harper, 1969. Observer (London), June 14, 1992; March 5, 1995; February 1, 1998, review of The Birthday Letters, p. 15; December 6, 1998, review of The Birthday Letters, p. 15; May 2, 1999, review of The Birthday Letters, p. 14; May 15, 2001, Vanessa Thorpe, "Secret Passions of a Poet Laureate," p. 4. Booklist, February 15, 1998, review of The Birthday Letters, p. 946; March 15, 1999, review of Tales from Ovid, p. 1295; June 1, 1999, review of The Oresteia, p. 1770. Each fresh encounter with despair becomes the occasion for a separate, almost funny, story in which natural forces and creatures, mythic figures, even parts of the body, act out their special roles, each endowed with its own irrepressible life. With Crow, Hughes joins the select band of survivor-poets whose work is adequate to the destructive reality we inhabit.’ A. Alvarez, the Observer