Flowers and Insects

The poems in this book are further evidence of Ted Hughes's spellbinding ability to re-create in words his experiences of the natural world. For all their vivid directness and accessibility, however, they are no more mere "nature poetry" than are the works of his predecessors in the English tradition, such as Blake and Lawrence. The sequence of drawings by Leonard Baskin expresses an equally powerful vision, parallel and complementary to that of the poems it accompanies.