Ted Hughes: Prometheus on His Crag

Relationship to Classical text A series of twenty-one short poems each beginning with the line 'Prometheus On His Crag'. There are some affinities with Orghast (1971) which drew on [Aeschylus'] Prometheus Bound. Some of the hyphenated compounds in Prometheus On His Crag may be assimilated from [Aeschylus] perhaps in the poetics of Gerard Manley Hopkins (e.g. p. 287, 'Writhed maelstrom-molten back / Into the heart's jar').

Comment CP prints the Moortown (1979) text and sequence. Three omitted poems (5, 12, 1) are reprinted in the Notes.

1 'His voice felt out the way. "I am" he said'

2 'Prometheus ...Relaxes'

3 'Prometheus ...Pestered by birds roosting and defecating'

4 'Prometheus...Spotted the vulture coming out of the sun'

5 'Prometheus ...Dreamed he had burst the sun's mass'

6 'Prometheus ...Has bitten his prophetic tongue off'

7 'Prometheus ...Arrested half-way from heaven'

8 'Prometheus ...Lay astonished all his preparations'

9 'Now I know I never shall'

10 'Prometheus ...Began to admire the vulture'

11 'Prometheus ...Tried to recall his night's dream'