Connecting Inwardly to Beethoven: Ted Hughes and the Role of the Artist As Quest Hero
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The University of Notre Dame Australia ResearchOnline@ND Theses 2013 Connecting inwardly to Beethoven: Ted Hughes and the role of the artist as quest hero David Charles Heldsinger Follow this and additional works at: https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Copyright Regulations 1969 WARNING The material in this communication may be subject to copyright under the Act. Any further copying or communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright protection under the Act. Do not remove this notice. Publication Details Heldsinger, D. C. (2013). Connecting inwardly to Beethoven: Ted Hughes and the role of the artist as quest hero (Master of Arts (Thesis)). University of Notre Dame Australia. https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses/83 This dissertation/thesis is brought to you by ResearchOnline@ND. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of ResearchOnline@ND. For more information, please contact [email protected]. _________________________________________ CONNECTING INWARDLY TO BEETHOVEN: TED HUGHES AND THE ROLE OF THE ARTIST AS QUEST HERO _________________________________________ This Masters by Research (English Literature) was written by David Charles Heldsinger for the School of Arts and Sciences of the University of Notre Dame (Fremantle) and submitted in the year 2013. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract p. 3 Acknowledgements p. 5 Introduction p. 6 Chapter One: Connecting Inwardly p. 11 Chapter Two: ‘The Original Cauldron Of Wisdom’ p. 40 Chapter Three: ‘Let Brain Mist Into Moist Earth’ p. 66 Chapter Four: ‘I Am That Which Is’ p. 98 Chapter Five: ‘A Becoming That Advances Only Through Negation And Contradiction’ p. 129 Conclusion p. 153 Bibliography p. 156 2 ABSTRACT Ted Hughes served as English Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death in 1998. In an insightful interview in 1970, Hughes said he connected ‘inwardly’1 to William Blake and Ludwig van Beethoven and that if he ‘could dig to the bottom’ of his ‘strata, maybe their names and works would be the deepest traces’.2 Blake and Beethoven lived and worked at a pivotal moment in history as the Romantic Movement emerged in the late 18th century. This Movement has had a significant and long lasting effect on art, culture, philosophy and politics. Shortly before his death, Hughes reiterated that Beethoven’s ‘music dominated’ his life and ‘preoccupied’ him ‘at some level’.3 Significantly, both Beethoven and Hughes believed that, as artists, they had to embark on the hero's journey for the sake of their art. In 1812, Beethoven wrote in his personal diary (Tagebuch) the following words: ‘Submission, deepest submission to your fate [...] Do everything that still has to be done to arrange what is necessary for the long journey [...] for you there is no longer any happiness except within yourself, in your art.’4 In similar Romantic vein, Hughes wrote in 1964 that ‘once you have been chosen by the spirits [...] there is no other life for you, you must shamanize or die’.5 This research analyses the artistic role of Hughes as quest hero and explores the ‘deepest traces’ of Beethoven in the poet’s work. While there is clear evidence that Hughes, throughout his prolific work, provides specific references to Beethoven, very little is known about the artistic confluences between the British poet and the German composer. What emerges is evidence of fascinating parallels and strong correlations between these two artists notwithstanding that they lived and worked in separate countries and during entirely different historical periods. This thesis shows that both Hughes and Beethoven shared the same Romantic belief in the power of the visionary imagination, the importance of understanding Nature, man’s place in it and the mystical powers in the universe; they were also both drawn to the same mythological figures. Through an analysis of carefully selected works by Hughes, this research will identify the traces of Beethoven in Hughes’s work, examine the forces of Romanticism at work on both Beethoven and Hughes and consider Hughes’s search for a powerful visionary imagination to get (as T. S. Eliot described) ‘beyond poetry as Beethoven, in his later works, strove to get beyond music’.6 1 Ekbert Faas, Ted Hughes: The Unaccommodated Universe, Black Sparrow Press, Santa Barbara, 1980, p. 202. 2 Faas, The Unaccommodated Universe, p. 202. 3 Letters of Ted Hughes, selected and edited by Christopher Reid, Faber and Faber, London, 2007, p. 722. 4 Maynard Solomon, Beethoven Essays, Harvard University Press, London England, 1997 p. 246. 5 Ted Hughes, Winter Pollen Occasional Prose, Faber and Faber, edited by William Scammell, London, 1994, p. 58. 6 Thomas Stearns Eliot, The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism: Studies in the Relation of Criticism to Poetry in England (Charles Eliot Norton Lectures 1932-1933). 3 I, David Charles Heldsinger, certify that this thesis is entirely my own work and contains no material that has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other institution. Furthermore, to the best of my knowledge, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis. David Charles Heldsinger _____________________ 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to acknowledge and thank the following people whose kindness and generosity made this thesis possible. To the memories of my late mother (a beautiful Goddess), Joyce Heldsinger, for making this journey possible in the first place and to my dear late friend, Peter Esterhuysen, for giving me the strength to continue with the journey and encouraging me to embrace it passionately. To my supervisors, Chris Wortham and Angeline O’Neill, for keeping me focussed on the path and inspiring me continually with their endless humanity and sagacity. To my two children, Sarah and Michael, for teaching me never to cease from exploration. To my wonderful wife, Sandy, for her support, encouragement and intellectual clarity and with whom it has been a privilege and an honour to have shared this journey and the journey of a lifetime. 5 INTRODUCTION During his lifetime, Ted Hughes published a substantial volume of poems, prose, articles, plays as well as children’s literature. He received much acclaim and was the recipient of numerous awards. He also served as English Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death in 1998. In ancient Greece, the laurel was regarded as sacred to the god Apollo and used as a crown to honour poets and heroes. It has been said that Hughes has ‘an extraordinarily subtle mind and one of total independence’.7 In a revealing interview with Ekbert Faas in 1970, Hughes said he connected ‘inwardly’8 to William Blake and Ludwig van Beethoven and that if he could dig to the bottom’ of his ‘strata, maybe their names and works would be the deepest traces’.9 Blake and Beethoven were born thirteen years apart (1757 and 1770, respectively) and both died in 1827. Blake’s life and experiences clearly intersected with Beethoven’s in that they both lived and worked as artists during the historical period known as the Romantic Movement which emerged in England and continental Europe in the late 18th century and lasted deep into the 19th century and, in some respects, well beyond it. Blake was a leading Romantic poet, philosopher, painter and engraver. Beethoven is today regarded as one of the greatest musical composers of all time. Hughes’s fascination for Beethoven is evident throughout his life. For example, at the beginning of his poetic career in 1961 during a BBC interview of him and his then wife, Sylvia Plath, Hughes said that Beethoven had more influence on him than any other single artist in any medium and that the composer and his music influenced his imagination and the coherence of his poetic imagination. In 1998, 37 years later and shortly before his death, Hughes reiterated that Beethoven’s ‘music dominated’ his ‘life’ and ‘preoccupied’ him ‘at some level’.10 The image of the artist cast as a hero/heroine who must make personal sacrifices and undergo a journey of discovery for the sake of his/her art is a fundamental trope of Romanticism. Significantly, both Beethoven and Hughes believed that, as artists, they had to make sacrifices and undertake the archetypal hero’s journey for the sake of their art. For both artists, personal development can only be accomplished through suffering. In 1812, Beethoven wrote in his personal diary (Tagebuch): ‘Submission, deepest submission to your fate [...] Do everything that still has to be done to arrange what is necessary for the long journey [...] for you there is no longer any happiness except within yourself, in your art.’11 The German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche said that Beethoven’s ‘gaze has become strong enough to make out the bottom of the dark well of being and 7 John Bayley, Times Literary Supplement as quoted on the back cover page of Hughes, Winter Pollen. 8 Faas, The Unaccommodated Universe, p. 202. 9 Faas, The Unaccommodated Universe, p. 202. 10 Hughes, Letters, p. 722. 11 Solomon, Beethoven Essays, p. 246. 6 [...] the distant constellations of future civilisations’.12 In a letter to Countess Erdödy in 1816, Beethoven wrote: During the last six weeks my health has been very shaky, so that I often think of death, but without fear [...] I perceive from your last letter to me that you, my dear friend, have also been a great sufferer. It is the fate of mortals, but