Poetry: "You Hated Spain" By Ted Hughes ‖ Tom Hiddleston ‖ Words and Music: Memory |
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"You Hated Spain" by Ted Hughes
Spain frightened you. Spain Where I felt at home. The blood-raw light, The oiled anchovy faces, the African Black edges to everything, frightened you. Your schooling had somehow neglected Spain. The wrought-iron grille, death and the Arab drum. You did not know the language, your soul was empty Of the signs, and the welding light Made your blood shrivel. Bosch Held out a spidery hand and you took it Timidly, a bobby-sox American. You saw right down to the Goya funeral grin And recognized it, and recoiled As your poems winced into chill, as your panic Clutched back towards college America. So we sat as tourists at the bullfight Watching bewildered bulls awkwardly butchered, Seeing the grey-faced matador, at the barrier Just below us, straightening his bent sword And vomiting with fear. And the horn That hid itself inside the blowfly belly Of the toppled picador punctured What was waiting for you. Spain Was the land of your dreams: the dust-red cadaver You dared not wake with, the puckering amputations No literature course had glamorized. The juju land behind your African lips. Spain was what you tried to wake up from And could not. I see you, in moonlight, Walking the empty wharf at Alicante Like a soul waiting for the ferry, A new soul, still not understanding, Thinking it is still your honeymoon In the happy world, with your whole life waiting, Happy, and all your poems still to be found. • ────────────────────────────────── • Source: "Words and Music: Memory", BBC Radio 3. Originally Aired: Sun 22 Feb 2015 "A journey of discovery, weaving music with poetry and prose read by leading actors." • ────────────────────────────────── • DISCLAIMER: This is a non-monetized channel. No copyright infringement intended. I created/edited this video for entertainment and educational purpose only. I do not own nor claim to own anything in this video. The videos/audios/photos are property of their rightful owners. All credit goes to the owners of all the materials used in this video. #poetry #poem #actorsreadingpoetry |