Great Regulars: Schoolchildren in Britain no longer come

across Kipling in class, but Hughes remains a staple of the English teacher hoping to infuse a love of poetry into his or her charges. In his introduction to a short selection of Hughes's poetry, the wonderfully gifted poet Simon Armitage--also a Yorkshireman--remembers the catalytic effect of being given Hughes to read in school:

My own experience as an uninspired and uninspiring secondary school student is one shared by many of the same age group, in the way that Hughes's poems were the first captivating moments in English literature, and were read and described by teachers who could not hide their enthusiasm for the work or their eagerness to share it.

from Powells: Review-A-Day: The Myths of Ted Hughes

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