"Everything you throw-away ends up in your cup of tea" - Ted Hughes 05/27/2009

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Poet Ted Hughes was incredibly well aware of the environmental impact we were having, and was writing, noting and campaigning from the late 50s. "As early as 1957, living in America with Sylvia Plath, he was writing to his sister, Olwyn, on the industrialisation of food production. 'Everything is in cellophane. Everything is 10,000 miles from where it was plucked or made.' Fifty years on, food miles and carcinogens in cellophane are hot environmental topics."
"Becoming poet laureate in 1984 gave Hughes a grander platform from which to campaign. He would also use his position to raise difficult questions about the state of the environment with the Thatcher government, then in the process of privatising the water authorities. The first poem he wrote in his new post was about the rivers of Devon he was fighting so hard to defend, 'Rain-Charm for the Duchy, A Blessed, Devout Drench for the Christening of His Royal Highness Prince Harry'. In an unpublished letter to his friend the academic Keith Sagar, he expressed satisfaction at the flutter of agitation the poem caused among Devon local councils, alarmed at the references to water quality smuggled into the verse.

'These are the perks,' Hughes wrote, before quoting a scathing stanza dedicated to the Torridge that he cut from the published poem. 'And the Torridge, that hospital sluice of all the doctored and scabby farms from Welcombe to Hatherlea to Torrington/ Poor, bleached leper in her pit, stirring her rags, praying that this at last is the kiss of the miracle.'"

On radio four recently we caught a quote from Ted Hughes - "everything you drink ends up in your cup of tea". Something that scientists at Plymouth University are finding is very true as plastic particles are being found in the tiniest of organisms.

Hanks and McCurdy transient drawing in the sand
"everything you throw away ends up in your cup of tea:"
New Beach, Shoreham-by-sea

 

Comments

Tea Lover link

03/04/2010 04:01

I couldn't agree more. It is absolutely terrible how poluted our water is nowadays. This is why we encourage people to drink their tea with only mineral and spring water. Or at least have their water filtered before use.

Thank you for an informative post.

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11/25/2010 18:03

Sometimes i want to be a bird soaring in the air.

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