Irish Mythology and Modern Ecology: A Bio-Ecosophic Reading Of Selected Oak Poems by Ted Hughes

Ted Hughes (1930-1998) had great admiration for Irish mythology.  One of his main sources on Irish folklore and mythology is Robert Graves’s book, The White Goddess.  In this book, Graves refers to the central place that the oak tree occupies in various mythologies and in particular the ancient Irish Tree Alphabet and Tree Calendar. Despite Hughes’s acknowledgement of his fascination with Irish folklore and culture, very little has been written on the subject.  Another element in Hughes that has lately gained great critical acclaim is his contribution to environmental and ecological issues. He has been called an “eco-warrior” and an “eco-worrier.”  Affinities of his works with Arne Naess’s deep ecology and James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis have been pointed out.  His poetry has also proved to be relevant to recent natural sciences such as biocommunication and biosemiotics, inspiring interdisciplinary studies in environmental sciences and humanities.  This paper attempts to demonstrate how Hughes managed to blend old Irish mythology with modern ecology, through the study of the three oak poems: “My Own True Family” (1973), “Gaudete” (1977) and “Tales from Ovid” (1997).