“18 Rugby Street” by Ted Hughes: Poem Analysis

The “18 Rugby Street” melancholic poem is filled with love, tenderness, and sadness about the poet’s past, which he will never be able to return. At the beginning of the poem, Hughes describes the house where he first met his future wife. This house in Bloomsbury, dear to the poet’s heart, appears to him as a kind of theater. In, acts and scenes take place, actors change, but events always repeat themselves, symbolizing the cyclical nature of life. Hughes describes the years that they lived in this house with his wife, veiled or almost directly mentioning personal details. It is possible to claim that “18 Rugby Street” is dedicated to his wife, Sylvia Plath. The poet describes her unusual beauty with such tenderness that the readers can almost feel his love for her. This poem was included in Birthday Letters, the last collection of poetry published in 1998, which was months before Hughes’ death. In “18 Rugby Street”, he probably tries to explain the essence and the nature of the relationship between him and his wife.