Wooroloo

I would have to say that Frieda Hughes is definitely a product of her parents. Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. She truly has that poetic ability in her blood. Her poems are both foreboding and devotional. This book is short and gives you a great idea of what types of colors Ms. Hughes is painting with in her surreal fantasy of the obscure voice. A must have for anyone who loves poetry, especially Ted Hughes and/or Sylvia Plath.

Frieda Hughes' book is one of my all-time favorites. Her poetry is beyond brilliant. Somehow, she touches a crystal core of light on even the most complex and dark subjects with such ease and flick of wit as well. Of course, she is the daughter of the late Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. Comparisons are inevitable but unfair. This is a great writer in her own vast realm of artistry and I for one urge you to buy this book and take it in...as one would the finest of wines. You'll be going back, again and again, for another sip. The book is truly that fine.

Wooroloo is Frieda Hughes first book of poetry. It's named after a small village in Australia in which Hughes lived for a time, painting. The colourful painting on the cover was Hughes handiwork. She's an award-winning painter and author of six children's books. I suppose it would also be pertinent to mention she is the daughter of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, both renowned poets. I didn't find out this latter information until after I read her book. Who her parents were/are should have no bearing on her work and I also think should have no bearing on whether you add this book to your poetry collection. While her relationship with her parents may have affected her writing her voice is all her own. At times, it seems Hughes has an eye for the macabre. You really have to think about the imagery this poet is describing and then it hits you. Like the last stanza of Dead Cow describing the birth of maggots. Fields, farming, foxes and kookaburra's are mentioned often in this collection and give an indication of how the landscape she lived in influenced her. She intertwines nature and the human quotient to carve potent images not soon forgotten. If I had to pick one poem from this collection as my favourite it would be Caesarian. Although dealing with the bloody, she's added a humorous visual of a child not wanting to leave the security of the womb for the noisy atmosphere of our society, especially in the first stanza when she says it's trying "To climb right back up again." Again in the third stanza: "With its feet on either side/ Of its mothers gaping manhole." In contrast, Hysterectomy provides a powerful bodily emotion of seriousness. Others worth noting are Frances, Rosa, and Winifred which provide intimate character detailing of three old ladies in a hospital. This collection provided an interesting portraiture of life and death and the living in between that was both visually and emotionally stirring. I recommend you take a gander. Review Originally Posted at http://www.linearreflections.com

It would be cheap to judge this book by the measure of the two figures (we think) are standing behind it. This is unfair to both this collection of poems and its writer. They stand on their own merits and are an impressive debut. That being said, there is still something in here for Plathians (and Hughians). Freida Hughes dedicated the book "For Daddy with love." Is there some irony here? Is she refering to her mother's most famous poem, and taking a shot at her father? The poem "The Wounding" seems addressed to her father as well and the damage their relationship inflicted on her psyche. She "plugged up the hole in her heart/Where father had taken/His finger out/." There is even a shot at Sylvia Plath's mother in "Granny" which begins with a humorous recitation of "Mirror, mirror on the wall/ Who is the least dead/ Of us all" and then goes on to recite the poet's attempts to not reiterate Sylvia Plath's relationship to her mother, Frieda Hughes' grandmother. But this book is not a mere reflection of family relationships for our voyeuristic consumption. A powerful poetic voice is emerging here, and it weaves it way through the themes of alienation and loneliness, birth and death, sorrow and the need to heal, all against the backdrop of an Australia that seems to be forever on fire, threatening (and inspiring?) the poet's quest for a real voice.

What a burden to have on top of you if you want to write poetry - your mother is Sylvia Plath; your father is poet laureate Ted Hughes. I was lucky and read a few of her poems before I knew her family background. Rereading them after that knowledge led me off in new directions... and I'm not sure how useful that was... The poems work well on their own. She has the painter's eye for color & detail (she & her husband are painters - she also writes & illustrates children's books) but there is more there. Yes, I see Hughes here - like those the foxes lurking about- and Plath's weight of family bearing down on her. But also I see someone off in Wooroloo, Australia very much on her own in that new land. I recommend it.