Ted Hughes: Song for a Phallus

Length / Form 80 lines, following a pattern of 4 line stanza followed by 1 line refrain. Contemporary idiom and ballad rhythm (Half-rhymes) with Chorus (‘Mamma Mamma’).

Allusion to Classical figure Develops image of Oedipus in the womb and his battle with the Sphinx and murderous relationship with his parents.

Comment Originally written as a kind of 'satyr' coda to Peter Brook's production of Hughes' version of Seneca's Oedipus.

Further Reading

Stuart Hirschberg. Myth in the Poetry of Ted Hughes, Totowa, N.J.: Barnes and Noble, 1981.