Fulbright Scholars - Ted Hughes
Where was it, in the Strand? A display
Of news items, in photographs.
For some reason I noticed it.
A picture of that year’s intake
Of Fulbright Scholars. Just arriving -
Or arrived. Or some of them.
Were you among them? I studied it.
Not too minutely, wondering
Which of them I might meet.
I remember that thought. Not
Your face. No doubt I scanned particularly
The girls. Maybe I noticed you.
Maybe I weighed you up, feeling unlikely.
Noted your long hair, loose waves -
Your Veronica Lake bang. Not what it hid.
It would appear blond. And your grin.
Your exaggerated American
Grin for the cameras, the judges, the strangers, the frighteners.
Then I forgot. Yet I remember
The picture : the Fulbright Scholars.
With their luggage? It seems unlikely.
Could they have come as a team? That’s as I remember.
From a stall near Charing Cross Station.
It was the first fresh peach I had ever tasted.
I could hardly believe how delicious.
At twenty-five I was dumbfounded afresh
By my ignorance of the simplest things.
Of news items, in photographs.
For some reason I noticed it.
A picture of that year’s intake
Of Fulbright Scholars. Just arriving -
Or arrived. Or some of them.
Were you among them? I studied it.
Not too minutely, wondering
Which of them I might meet.
I remember that thought. Not
Your face. No doubt I scanned particularly
The girls. Maybe I noticed you.
Maybe I weighed you up, feeling unlikely.
Noted your long hair, loose waves -
Your Veronica Lake bang. Not what it hid.
It would appear blond. And your grin.
Your exaggerated American
Grin for the cameras, the judges, the strangers, the frighteners.
Then I forgot. Yet I remember
The picture : the Fulbright Scholars.
With their luggage? It seems unlikely.
Could they have come as a team? That’s as I remember.
From a stall near Charing Cross Station.
It was the first fresh peach I had ever tasted.
I could hardly believe how delicious.
At twenty-five I was dumbfounded afresh
By my ignorance of the simplest things.
Fulbright Scholars is the first poem in Birthday Letter’s, the first memory Ted Hughes has
of Sylvia Plath. Throughout this poem the concept of what the truth is has significance.
Hughes shows through rhetorical questions his lack of clarity in remembering the event.
This results in the perspective of Hughes differing from the actual event, the ‘truth’. “Were
you among them?” shows Hughes’ uncertainty in the actual event. This may stem from
the event happening years before or he has made up another version in his head to better
deal with the suicide of his wife. The concept that the truth is different depending on the
perspective you look from is explored both in this poem and the film Atonement. In the
film the main characters are: James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, and Saoirse Ronan. McAvoy
is accused of a crime he did not commit by Ronan who plays Knightley’s sister. The truth
is altered and becomes hard to come to the final truth of the event. Ronan writes a book
that tells of the event but what she makes the ending fictional. The truth is never fully
revealed, showing the conflicting perspectives about the actual truth. Resulting in the
question being raised in the film along with the poem “what is the truth?”.
of Sylvia Plath. Throughout this poem the concept of what the truth is has significance.
Hughes shows through rhetorical questions his lack of clarity in remembering the event.
This results in the perspective of Hughes differing from the actual event, the ‘truth’. “Were
you among them?” shows Hughes’ uncertainty in the actual event. This may stem from
the event happening years before or he has made up another version in his head to better
deal with the suicide of his wife. The concept that the truth is different depending on the
perspective you look from is explored both in this poem and the film Atonement. In the
film the main characters are: James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, and Saoirse Ronan. McAvoy
is accused of a crime he did not commit by Ronan who plays Knightley’s sister. The truth
is altered and becomes hard to come to the final truth of the event. Ronan writes a book
that tells of the event but what she makes the ending fictional. The truth is never fully
revealed, showing the conflicting perspectives about the actual truth. Resulting in the
question being raised in the film along with the poem “what is the truth?”.