Birthday+Letters+-+poetic+form+and+intent.


 * Read the pages below and aim to develop your own understanding of how Hughes is using the resources of poetry as a mode of expression and communication.**
 * How would you answer the following questions:**
 * 1. Hughes is revered as a great poet of the twentieth century. How would you support or challenge this view by reference to the poems you have studied in //Birthday Letters//?**
 * 2. Which are the key images in each of the poems set for study? How does each one contribute to our view of Hughes and of Plath?**
 * 3. Hughes said of these poems, "...they are not really pieces for public consumption - rather for my private health."**
 * Where do you see this private purpose most clearly in the poems?**
 * 4. Setting aside the question of why Hughes published them at all, consider what these poems add to the public discourse around the Plath/Hughes relationship.**