As Poet Laureate of England and recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry and the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry, Ted Hughes was an acclaimed poet. The shadow of Hughes' late wife, Sylvia Plath, kept Hughes stagnant in his career, in which he was known as "Her Husband" (Middlebrook). Hughes's most recent collection of poems, Birthday Letters, took him over twenty-five years to write and contains poems that recount the couple's marriage. Hughes wrote these poems as a gesture of love towards Sylvia, but the poems have been misinterpreted as "an attempt to adjust the public record in the wake of her confession and the mass of commentary that developed around her." 'them' (Spurr 3). Hughes incorporated into his poetry the ideals of postmodernism, its dark life and relationships, its simplistic formatting, imagery, and allusions. Hughes influenced the world through his animal images and multiple tones. Ted Hughes' life began in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, in 1930, where he learned to appreciate the outdoors. Mytholmroyd was a rural and mountainous region; Hughes and his brothers spent their time in nature, which later influenced Hughes' writings on animals. At age 15, Hughes began writing his first poems at Mexborough Grammar School. Through poetry, Hughes won a full scholarship to study English at Cambridge University, although he later changed his major to anthropology. At first glance, Cambridge University may not have appeared to influence Hughes's poetry, however, in retrospect it did influence his marital relationships. After graduating, Hughes met Sylvia Plath, whom he married after a four-month period. Hughes and Plath had a difficult relationship and were having difficulty raising their two children...... middle of paper ...... languages ​​and literature - Course. " Brock University, Niagara Region, 500 Glenridge Ave., St. Catharines, Ontario L2S 3A1 Canada. April 30, 2008. Web January 3, 2010. .Middlebrook, Diane Her husband: Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath – A marriage: Penguin (No -Classics), 2003. . Print. Paul, Sharla. “A New Vision of Ted Hughes.” Emory Magazine Spring 2000: 1. Print. Spurr, Barry “True Confessions of Ted Hughes.” The University of Sydney. Web. January 3, 2010. “Ted Hughes.” Poetry Archive. Web. January 3, 2010. Wagner, Erica. Ariel's Gift: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, and the History of Birthday Letters New York: WW Norton & Company, 2002. Print..