Wodwo, the Radio Plays, and Crow

Abstract

Wodwo, one of the important fruits of that ferment of thought and broadening of religious and political horizons which was the 1960s, is a pivotal volume in Hughes’ career, and asks of the reader familiar only with the earlier books an especially large readjustment of focus. Appearing seven years after Lupercal, it shows a deeper vision, a more thoroughgoing calling-into-question and an increased burden of ‘agony’ — perhaps the key word for Wodwo and Crow — which amounts to an implicit rejection of much, but not all, of what the first volumes offered.