Hughes' relationship with nature is so central to his work that every book on him has discussed it. However, because of the larger scope of all these books, this discussion has remained at a fairly superficial level. Here Keith Sagar tries to take it onto a deeper level by relating it to paganism and Christianity, myth, Greek tragedy, Shakespeare, and the whole tradition of nature poetry in English, to Hughes' particular canon of revered poets, to his wider reading and the shaping events of his life. He traces Hughes' painful journey from terror in the face of nature in his first three collections, through the transitional works from Crow to Cave Birds, to the transformation in Moortown and Remains of Elmet, culminating in the exultation of River. He argues that these three collections constitute the apex of Hughes' achievement, and are among the great works of world literature.

This revised and updated edition of a Ted Hughes annotated, descriptive bibliography includes a new section recording over 1000 of his manuscripts.

D. H. Lawrence wrote over a thousand poems. His standing as a poet would probably have been much higher but for his pre-eminence as a writer of fiction. Though much has been written about Lawrence's poetry (as revealed by the several hundred entries in the book's checklist of criticism), there have been relatively few full length studies. This book deals with the whole range of his poetry from his earliest poems, such as 'To Campions' and 'To Guelder Roses', through the poems inspired by his elopement with and subsequent marriage to Frieda Weekley (Look! We Have Come Through!), to the mature achievement, in free verse forms inspired by Walt Whitman, of Birds, Beasts and Flowers, Pansies and Last Poems. The genesis of the poems in Lawrence's life is explored; and there are new interpretations of his most memorable poems, such as 'The Wild Common', 'Piano', 'Song of a Man Who Has Come Through', Tortoises, 'Peach', 'Pomegranate', 'Snake', 'Bavarian Gentians' and 'The Ship of Death'

This volume contains almost all of the letters D. H. Lawrence wrote in the last fifteen months of his life: 763 letters, the majority previously unpublished. Despite his failing strength, Lawrence was in constant communication with publishers and agents. He continued to write frequently to his sisters and friends. There is no new fiction for Lawrence to discuss, but there are paintings, poems, the major essays Pornography and Obscenity and A Propos of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', articles, and his last work Apocalypse. The most dramatic episodes of these months were the seizure of the Pansies manuscript, and the police raid on an exhibition of Lawrence's paintings and the subsequent trial. The subject of his illness becomes ominously more prominent, and Lawrence apologises for letters which lack his customary vitality. The volume includes an introduction, maps, illustrations, chronology and index; full notes identify persons and explain Lawrence's allusions.

Dr Sagar believes that when we see Ted Hughes work as a whole, with each book a stage in a psychic adventure involving new stylistic challenge, we shall see it to be the achievement of a major poet. In this study of Ted Hughes, Dr Sagar gives most of his attention to individual poems, their meaning and coherence, their relation to each other and to the poetic tradition, their sources and background (often in mythology and folklore), and their relevance to living in our time. He began reading Hughes in 1957 when The Hawk in the Ruin appeared, and has followed his development closely ever since: here, with benefit of hindsight, he attempts to retrace that journey. A chapter is devoted to each major work.

In this comprehensive study of D. H. Lawrence's major works, originally published in paperback in 1975, Keith Sagar traces the development of Lawrence's vision and the 'appropriate form' which that vision found at different periods of his life. Dr Sagar sees Lawrence's creative life as falling into four distinct phases: a period of gradual discovery and growth; a period of mature achievement; a phase of moral and artistic uncertainty, even desperation; and a regeneration to a new art and vision. The elaboration and testing of this division, based on close and penetrating analyses of the chosen works, produced what was perhaps the most coherent account of Lawrence's art yet written. Each chapter begins with a full chronology, dating the works of the years in question in order of composition, and there is an extensive bibliography.

In this comprehensive study of D. H. Lawrence's major works, originally published in paperback in 1975, Keith Sagar traces the development of Lawrence's vision and the 'appropriate form' which that vision found at different periods of his life. Dr Sagar sees Lawrence's creative life as falling into four distinct phases: a period of gradual discovery and growth; a period of mature achievement; a phase of moral and artistic uncertainty, even desperation; and a regeneration to a new art and vision. The elaboration and testing of this division, based on close and penetrating analyses of the chosen works, produced what was perhaps the most coherent account of Lawrence's art yet written. Each chapter begins with a full chronology, dating the works of the years in question in order of composition, and there is an extensive bibliography.